explore Berlin

freeEroica @ Säälchen, Holzmarkt25 | Berlin

Ab 20.00 Uhr

03.09.2026

The opening: Revolution @ Säälchen

explore Berlin: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

We’re kicking off our journey through the capital with a real bang: to mark the start of ‘explore Berlin’, we’re hosting two electrifying double concerts in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg on 3 and 4 September. Our venue is the Säälchen on the creative Holzmarkt25 site – a place that epitomises urban transformation, freedom and community like no other. It’s exactly the right space for our freeEroica programme. We’re dedicating ourselves to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony, one of the greatest revolutionary acts in musical history. But we’re not simply performing Beethoven – we’re bringing him to life anew. With gripping re-compositions, jazz influences and radical improvisation, we break down the work – whilst remaining true to its cherished musical heritage – and translate the spirit of that era of upheaval directly into the present day. The orchestra moves freely through the Säälchen, sweeping the audience along with it and making the pursuit of the unexpected physically palpable.

Photo: Gunnar Laak

TICKET CATEGORIES

Stegreif’s approach is to make our concerts as accessible as we can afford to make them. To ensure that eligibility for a discount is not tied to a specific document, we offer our heavily discounted tickets on the basis of our visitors’ ‘self-assessment’. For those who wish to actively support this principle of solidarity, we offer our ‘support ticket’ <3 Thank you very much for your support!

explore Berlin

Where?

Säälchen at the Holzmarkt25
Holzmarktstraße 25
10243 Berlin

Location

Tickets

15€ reduced
25€ regular
35€ Support Ticket

20€ Early-Bird

book

TEAM

recomposition, arrangement
Alistair Duncan, Mike Conrad

musical lead
Sebastian Caspar

staging
David Fernández / Franziska Ritter

management
Gineke Pranger

light design
Arnaud Poumarat vertreten durch Lou Oehlrich

project lead
Lea Hladka

ABOUT: freeEroica

Stegreif loves those free spirits, revolutionaries and dissenters. All those who had their own ideas about the world and were courageous enough to live them.

freeEroica is about revolutions - historical and musical - and the heroes they brought forth. The orchestra strives towards them without sheet music, without a conductor and without chairs, and in doing so also looks for the small disorders. For example;these disruptions "only" consist of entering the concert hall without shoes or taking the audience on a journey from 18th century France to the present. Thus, the Eroica is relieved with performance, improvisation and recomposition. Ripped pieces of sheet music, large majestic red cloth, destroyed orchestra positions of chairs and stands… All of these elements break the expectations of the listener to what Eroica was, and as part of the centuries-old canon repertoire, we find a new quest for this Beethoven’s new and bold work.