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Lesung, Gespräch und Musik

Belarus - Literature and Music between Satire and Dystopia

With Alhierd Bacharevic, Tom Wlaschiha, Thomas Weiler, and Olga Podgaiskaya.
© Julia Cimafiejeva

1/12

Monday | 1/12/2026
7:30 pm Start of Concert
Kulturpalast, Konzertsaal
Prices 19 € FLEXFee + 6 € Discounted prices: from 10 € for students under 18 years from 10 € for young people under 30 years 14 € for library users upon presentation of the user card, only bookable on-site 5 € for students (library users) upon presentation of the user card, only bookable on-site from 9.50 € for Dresden-Pass holders and severely disabled with a degree of disability of 80 8 € for Last Minute Who is eligible for discounts? Read here.

About the Event

In 2025, Belarusian writer Alhierd Bacharevič received the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding for "Europe's Dogs". At the center of this powerful novel are six people living in a dark future Europe that has excluded all "foreigners" - their stories intertwine in a wild mix of political thriller, epic, adventure story, satire, and fairy tale, creating a multifaceted panorama of exclusion, identity, and the destructive power of political ideologies. Language becomes a battleground between power and freedom and the most important site of resistance. Bacharevič's novel is alarmingly current and provocative - a literary warning against a regression into old patterns. The book is now banned in Belarus. Since 2020, the author has been living in exile. The novel was published in German in 2024, translated by Thomas Weiler, who has been awarded multiple times for his translations of works from the Slavic language area, most recently with the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the Translation category. He will guide the event. Belarusian organist and composer Olga Podgaiskaya is known for her music for films by Belarusian directors, and her works have been performed at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and the Beethovenfest Bonn. Since 2021, she has been living and working in Poland. She will accompany the reading on the organ with her own compositions. The event marks the beginning of the literature series VOICES FROM EASTERN EUROPE - TO GO OR TO STAY? A collaboration between the Municipal Libraries of Dresden, the Saxon State Library - State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation Saxony. The opening event is a joint collaboration between the Dresden Philharmonic and the aforementioned organizations.

Program

Alhierd Bacharevic
Reading from the novel "Europe's Dogs"

Olga Podgaiskaya
"In B" for organ
"Dreams Under the Blue Tree" for organ
"Everywhere Barbarians and Savages" for organ
"Bach is Walking" for organ

Artists

Alhierd Bacharevič
Author
Thomas Weiler
Translator and Moderator
Tom Wlaschiha
Speaker
Olga Podgaiskaya
Organ

Biographies

Alhierd Bacharevič

Alhierd Bacharevič (born 1975 in Minsk) is a Belarusian writer. He studied Belarusian literature and linguistics at the Pedagogical University in Minsk. He has published several novels and essay collections, and his books have been translated into German, English, Russian and other languages. His 900-page work 'Europas Hunde' (Europe's Dogs) was published in 2017.

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Thomas Weiler

Thomas Weiler, born in the Black Forest in 1978, studied translation in Leipzig, Berlin and St. Petersburg. He has been working as a freelance translator from Polish, Russian and Belarusian since 2007. Thomas Weiler translates fiction, poetry and children's books.

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Tom Wlaschiha

From "Game of Thrones" and "Stranger Things" to the Kulturpalast: actor, presenter, and voice actor Tom Wlaschiha speaks six languages and is known to many people from film and television. Now he is entering the world of classical music as the narrator in "Die Abenteuer der kleinen Trompete" (The Adventures of the Little Trumpet) at the Dresden School Concert.

 

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Olga Podgaiskaya

Olga Podgaiskaya (b. 1981) is a composer and organist.
She studied composition at the Belarusian State Academy of Music in Minsk and has since written a wide range of works, including operas, music theatre, choral pieces, orchestral and chamber compositions, and music for film, which are performed worldwide.

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