“Twice upon” is undoubtedly one of the most unusual works in the entire output of Italian composer Luciano Berio (1925-2003). In the mid-1990s, British music educator Richard McNicol suggested that Berio might compose a work that would bring children together with professional musicians. Divided into six musical teams, the children enact a fascinating “theater without words,” in which participants sing, act, whisper and laugh – along with a few surprise appearances. Only twice performed previously anywhere else in the world, this piece will now see its German premiere in the hands of pupils of the Elly Heuss Knapp Gymnasium (Duisburg-Marxloh) and of the Heinrich Kleist School (Bochum) in tandem with Ensemble Musikfabrik, a renowned collective specialized in contemporary music. The programme also features choreographies based on Berio’s Folk Songs and further pieces conceived and enacted by pupils of the Mariengymnasium (Essen-Werden) and students of the Folkwang University of the Arts conducted by Matthias Schlothfeldt.