Trifolion is celebrating its first anniversary

Trifolion opened its doors on April 24, 2008 for the first time.

The institution used this anniversary in order to organize a birthday weekend celebration on April 25th and 26th, Saturday with Ingolf Lück and Sunday with an open house event - closing off with a concert by Bruce Brubaker and Francesco Schlimé.

Ingolf Lück´s play “One Way Man” was the first celebratory event of the anniversary. After numerous speakers congratulated Trifolion to its first anniversary, Ingolf Lück amused the visitors and made them think: the world today is not easy for men. On one hand they are “highly specialized disposable bottles” through which these experts lose track of the main issue. In spite of this they have to be prepared to offer women anything that women want. Ingolf Lück, aka Frank sums up his life with his wife: “When women ask us about what we think they don’t want to hear what we think. They want to hear what they think”. This emotional world in which women swell is foreign to Frank: “ We men want to show what we can do and not what we feel”. Ingolf Lück, known as moderator and comedian on German television is not performing out of Germany for the first time but it is the first time that he is performing in Luxembourg and the Trifolion. The experienced stage actor Lück had an ambivalent relationship to the venue, the Atrium: “The audience has unbelievably comfortable seats with adjustable backrests!” An audience should sit uncomfortable so that they will pay attention! Here it is imminent that they fall asleep…..and I know that one: folks hide in their seats and I can’t get to them.”

On the theater stage Lück presents himself as an expressive actor – completely different from television. There he usually takes on more serious roles. In “One-Way-Man” he mimes the confused looser who is thoughtfully reviewing his life and while doing that is looking for the important thing about being a man - and finds it for himself. Ingolf Lück, who is celebrating his birthday on the same weekend as the Trifolion, lives quite ascetically in his private life: he only drinks water or green tea, doesn’t smoke or eat sugar. For his figure he emphasizes, for that is the reason he stays fit and agile as a current 51-year-old.

It is not only the common birthday weekend, which connects Ingolf Lück and the Trifolion. The roles Mr. Lück plays on stage and that Trifolion plays for Echternach are similar: High expectations and exigencies rest with the Trifolion just as they do on the man as such.

The hopes, which have been placed into the Culture, Tourism and Congressional Center since 2008 were said to be fulfilled according to the speakers at the beginning of the evening. The mayor of Echternach, Théo Thiry, opened the event and announced that with a booking rate of 70% the set goal has been reached. The president of Trifolion, Georges Cateux commented in his speech on the possibilities that the Trifolion offers for combining youth and culture.

Ralf Britten, Director and CEO of the institution, was very happy about the numerous congratulations and summed up the successful work of the past year and a good, even cross border establishment of the Trifolion.

The Luxembourgian Secretary of Culture, Octavie Modert who finalized the round of speakers, did not save on her praise for the cultural enrichment the institution represents for Luxembourg and passed out verbal laurels for the employees of Trifolion who made such a success possible.

The anniversary celebration continued after the theater play. The visitors spread out to the Agora and the upper foyer, following the cutting of the 2-meter high birthday cake by George Calteux and Ingolf Lück and celebrated with cake and sparkling wine until late into the night.

Many friends of Trifolion gathered on the following morning in the house, in spite of the celebrations until late the night before.

Sunday, April 26th was celebrated with an open house event. All those interested were able to still their curiosity about Trifolion: all doors of the Cultural, Tourism and Congressional Center openly invited people of all ages to visit. Food and drink, besides musical entertainment was provided. Kids corners and moonwalks for the little ones and tours through the large building as well as donkey cart treks through Echternach provided family fun and diversity. In and around the Trifolion the curious crowd of people enlivened the Sunday-atmosphere in Echternach. There was lively activity – on foot, by bicycle, car and donkey cart. Colorful balloons, shiny children’s eyes, happy parents and contented visitors as a whole were the result of the open house.

The celebration ended with a resonant and unusual concert. The American pianist and professor of the renowned Juilliard-School in New York, Bruce Brubaker and his former student who himself in the meantime is an internationally celebrated pianist and composer, the Luxembourgian Francesco Schlimé who chooses to live in Barcelona performed a concert of true magnificence: Brubaker and Schlimé conceptualized “Dual.duo” exclusively for the Trifolion on its anniversary. As such, the evening was a world premiere. The contemporary piece “25 pages” by Earle Brown formed the basis for Schlimé and Brubaker and was intertwined throughout the entire evening. Schlimé and Brubaker seated at two pianos took turns playing assorted pieces by composers from Baroque up to modern times (i.e. Bach, Chopin, Buxtehude) as well as their own composition, all in a seamless transition integrated in Browns framework. The provoked and specifically wanted confrontation and integration of contemporary, baroque and romantic music challenged the audience during the 90 minutes – without the usual intermittence – to be confronted with permanent sequential, contradictory and suspenseful bends and direction of styles. Besides the enormous artistic as well as technical demands of each individual pieces, the two world renowned music virtuosos showed tremendous endurance. The two musicians made the piano keys of both instruments glow, in part as a duet and at other times in a virtual duel against each other. The “contest of giants” not only brought the audience much joy, suspense and surprise but Brubaker and Schlimé were noticeably delighted. “This premier really did go well and it was unbelievably enjoyable. Why not do this again?” - Brubaker instills hope for a continuation…

The impressing character of Trifolion as Culture, Tourism and Congressional Center was clearly noticeable for all guests during this anniversary weekend. Altogether about 2000 visitors enjoyed the festivities. The diversity of offers will continue and be expanded into and through the coming year.

The team at Trifolion would like to sincerely thank all the guests who celebrated together with them this weekend: We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we are looking forward to welcoming you more and more often in the future.