Hearing Memory tells the story of a forgotten East German avant-garde, asking how an overlooked cultural history might inform our political present.

Oboist James Austin Smith brings his musical-historical project, Hearing Memory, to National Sawdust, exploring music lost to the 'end of history’. Through documentary interviews, story-telling and musical performance, Smith and pianist Cory Smythe reflect on the complicated legacy of the daring classical music scene that emerged in the 1970s in East Germany, offering a powerful example of musicians creating meaning beyond sound. Music of Friedrich Goldmann, Christfried Schmidt, Siegfried Thiele and Paul Dessau will be featured alongside a world premiere of a work for oboe and piano by Matana Roberts.