On Friday 13 November 2026 at 7pm the Museum Barberini in Potsdam turns its auditorium into a Paris salon. Players from the Kammerakademie Potsdam perform string quartets connected to Winnaretta Singer (1865–1943), heiress to the Singer sewing-machine fortune and one of the great patrons of the arts around 1900. The 29 € ticket includes entry to the Impressionism exhibition that afternoon.
Singer was a painter and a gifted musician herself. She bought paintings by Manet and Monet early, commissioned new music from Stravinsky, Satie and Ravel, and hosted hundreds of concerts in her Paris house. Her husband, Prince Edmond de Polignac, was a respected composer whose music has since been almost completely forgotten. This concert plays two movements of his String Quartet No. 2 in F major, possibly the first performance of any of it since the Paris salon. Next to it are Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 and the third movement of Debussy's String Quartet in G minor, both pieces that were played in her house.
What to expect
Clemens Goldberg presents the evening, and the museum's director Ortrud Westheider takes part. There is also a link to the walls: Singer bought the Palazzo Contarini in Venice for Polignac, and Monet painted the same palazzo several times. One of those paintings hangs in the current exhibition, The Impressionists. Monet, Morisot, Renoir and Their Network.
Good to know
- When: Friday 13 November 2026, 7pm. The exhibition is open to ticket holders from 5.30pm, and the auditorium from 6.30pm.
- Where: Museum Barberini, Humboldtstraße 5–6, 14467 Potsdam
- Tickets: 29 €, including the exhibition. Few seats were left at the time of writing, so book online.
- Musicians: Peter Rainer and Michiko Iiyoshi (violin), Jennifer Anschel (viola), Alma-Sophie Starke (cello)
- Language: the museum announces the evening in German only, so expect the presentation in German
- Getting there: S7 or RE1 from Berlin to Potsdam Hauptbahnhof, then ten minutes on foot. Trains back to Berlin run late.
Nearby
Back in Berlin the same night, Videoart at Midnight screens Daniel Hopp's films at Kino Babylon, free, starting at midnight.