Jutta Speidel reads – Billie’s Blues, a tribute to Billie Holiday

The great actress Jutta Speidel will make her debut in Wernigerode on March 21, 2026, presenting the life of a colorful grande dame of jazz at 8:00 PM in the Liebfrauen Concert Hall. A film portrait during the entrance will set the stage for the life and music of the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday right from the start. Following this, the renowned actress Jutta Speidel, together with her daughter Antonia Feuerstein (singer) and Peter Rodekuhr on piano, will create a musical reading, alternating texts from Billie Holiday's autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" with songs from the jazz legend. Billie Holiday once wrote: "I have been told that no one sings the word HUNGER like I do. Likewise the word LOVE. Perhaps it's because I know what these words mean. Perhaps it's because I am proud enough to want to remember all of it. Baltimore and Welfare Island, the Catholic home and the Jefferson Court, the sheriff in front of our house in Harlem and all the cities across America where I got my bumps and scars, every little thing. All the minks and Cadillacs in the world – and I have had a few of both – cannot weigh that or make me forget it. Everything I ever learned from people is in these two words." A bittersweet glimpse into the life and work of the African American singer who was born in Philadelphia in 1915.