MUSIC

Ekke Maaß, next to Wolf Biermann one of the most important singer/songwriters of former East Germany, will make his US debut with a concert at the Goethe-Institut Boston. He will sing chansons based on texts of Goethe, Heine, Brecht, Biermann and Bulat Okudshawa using vocals, guitar and harmonium. Ekkehard („Ekke“) Maaß, born in 1951 in Naumburg/Saale, East Germany, studied Theology and Philosophy and became famous in the GDR as an interpreter of songs by the Russian poet/singer Bulat Okudshawa. Ekke Maaß is fluent in Russian and has traveled extensively in the Soviet Union. When Wolf Biermann was stripped of his GDR citizenship and refused permission to return, Ekke Maaß organized readings and get-togethers for artists in his own home. His apartment became a safe haven for a generation of East German artists who - 10 years before the demise of the GDR - were critical of its socialist ideology. Ekke Maaß is an eye witness to the sorrow at the German border, which separated him from his parents and siblings for 16 years. In his concerts, German contemporary history becomes alive and comprehensible. Ekke Maaß currently lives in Berlin and this marks his first trip to the US.