"I only need one wing to fly"

On stage, the artist, who charmingly and wittily explained the background to the individual compositions, created a captivating mixture of familiar and surprising sounds and opened up new horizons: George Gershwin met Fazil Say, a grand piano met a toy piano, old met new, improvisation met a melodica.

Many pieces by predominantly American composers reflected the significant influence of jazz and African-American music. The compositions of Turkish composer Fazil Say also bridged the gap between classical music and jazz.

Jutta Rieping enchanted her audience with seemingly playful ease paired with the highest level of perfection. The artist combined outstanding compositions such as Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, his Preludes or Scott Joplin's Original Rags with her own compositions. Jutta Rieping's playing touched, enticed and challenged.

Following the death of Herbert Pälmke, Cornelia Baumann, Head of the Department of Education, Culture and Leisure at the City of Beckum, has taken over the management of the chamber concert series "Music in the Old Rectory". After the concert, Baumann was delighted with the successful start. "We, the Friends of the Chamber Concerts and the town of Beckum, want to modernise the concert series in order to get more young people interested in classical music. To do this, we have to open ourselves up to the whole spectrum of classical music," she explained. Today's concert was a first step, which was more than successful. "In future, guests can look forward to a mix of tradition and modernity," said the head of department.