There’s music in everyone
Education Programme – A Berliner Philharmoniker initiative supported by Deutsche Bank
By Berliner Philharmoniker
Berliner Philharmoniker
The Education Programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker
The aim of the education programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker is to make the work of the Berliner Philharmoniker and its music as accessible to as many people as possible. Initiated by Sir Simon Rattle and supported financially since its inception in 2002 by Deutsche Bank, the projects are aimed at people of all ages, different social and cultural backgrounds and talents and encourage an active and an artistic engagement with music.
Vocal heroes
Singing is the most direct and fundamental form of musical expression. To promote singing, a new sector within the education programme started from October 2013 which aims to create long-term spaces for singing and making music together. Venues for the choir rehearsals of the “vocal heroes” opened in various districts of Berlin.
A highlight of the celebration “10 Years of Education” was the taged production of Benjamin Brittenʼs opera for children “Noyeʼs Fludde”. 300 children, amateur musicians from high schools in Berlin and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Simon Rattle transformed in a production by Jasmina Hadziahmetovic the main auditorium into an ark.
A good stretch: in preparation for singing, warm-up exercises are a must.
The purpose of this project is to promote local partnerships and neighbourly coexistence in addition to arts education and equal opportunities. The aim and highlight will be musical encounters between the musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the “vocal heroes” in joint projects.
A CD is created: The vocal heroes record the CD for the songs project of the music publisher Carus, “Kinderlieder aus Deutschland und Europa” (Children's Songs from Germany and Europe”.
Crowds are fascinating. The many different emotions and sounds that arise from crowds are incorporated by composer David Lang in his work “Crowd Out”. More than 1,000 choristers performed Crowd Out at the festival at the Kulturforum in the summer of 2014 – an exciting experiment that you can relive in this documentary.
To the documentation
Rehearsals in a professional environment: the young participants of the choir project work hard and have a lot of fun at the same time!
On rehearsal: the battle with the monster
Jonathan Dove’s children’s opera “The Monster in the Maze”, commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, the London Symphony Orchestra and the International Festival of Aix-en-Provence, involves around 200 amateur singers.
To the concert
The Creative Projects
The creative projects MusicPLUS, which are always based on works in the current orchestral repertoire, enable a variety of approaches to the world of classical music. The ways there are diverse, creative and interdisciplinary. Whether in their own compositions or through working with other art forms, the workshops allow participants to discover their own artistic expression. The simple and direct exploration of the respective work including its cultural and historical aspects culminates in the participants’ own paintings and compositions.
Creative project 2002: Maurice Ravel “L'Enfant et les Sortilèges”
Tolerance and openness - the last things you would expect to find in a prison, but it was exactly these attributes that led to the great success of this creative project.
Dance Project, vocal workshops and percussion workshops for Igor Stravinsky's “Le Sacre du printemps” during the guest appearance by the Berliner Philharmoniker in New York in November 2007.
School project based on Karl Stockhausens “Groups”
This creative project was operated in association with the orchestra's Alla turca chamber music series. With musical support by Philharmoniker members of the ensemble Bolero Berlin, the choreographer Rosemary Neri-Calheiros – together with students – developed new forms of movement to tango music from Latin America, which was heavily influenced by the composer Astor Piazolla. For the performance, the choreography created was musically reinterpreted by the musicians.
“Feuer fängt mein Herz” was an educational project at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2010. An extremely exciting 50 minutes in which pupils, students and adults, who had worked together over a period of three weeks, put their view of Richard Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" up for discussion.
The creative projects inspire not only the young participants but also the Berliner Philharmoniker themselves, here the violist Matthew Hunter.
Based on Schumann’s “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust”, pupils from Berlin secondary schools will use their own ideas to explore the literary masterpiece “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Under the direction of orchestral members Thomas Leyendecker and Philip Bohnen, they will explore, develop and present their own musical and dramatic ideas.
Dance Projects
Until June 2012, the education programme brought the concert season to a close with a spectacular dance project in the Arena Treptow. An event in which brought the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle and the young participants very close together.
Premiere in the Arena Treptow: 350 young Berliners discover Stravinsky's “Rite of Spring” together with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle.
Selten hat eine Dokumentation über klassische Musik soviel Resonanz erhalten wie der weltweit gezeigte Kinofilm »Rhythm Is It!« Die Wochenzeitung »Die Zeit« forderte gar, dass »Rhythm Is It! Pflicht in allen Schulen wird«. Es geht um Themen, die uns alle bewegen: Wie entwickeln junge Menschen ihre Talente? Wie kann Kreativität unser Leben verändern? Dazu gibt es hinreißende Tanz-Szenen und grandiose Musik von den Berliner Philharmonikern unter Leitung von Sir Simon Rattle.
Heiner Goebbels: Surrogate Cities. An educational dance project with Berlin school pupils / Berliner Philharmoniker · Sir Simon Rattle, conductor · Jocelyn B. Smith, vocals · Mathilde Monnier, choreographer / Recorded at Berlin Treptow Arena, 2 February 2008
Wynton Marsalis: Swing Symphony. An educational dance project with Berlin school pupils / Berliner Philharmoniker · Sir Simon Rattle, conductor · Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra · Wynton Marsalis, artistic director · Rhys Martin, choreography / Recorded at Berlin Treptow Arena, 13 June 2011
For the whole family
In the family concerts there is lots of fun and lots to learn – about the instruments, the musicians and of course music.
At a family concert at the Berlin Philharmonie in December 2006, conductor Mark Elder asked the audience if any of the children present wanted to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker. A courageous eight-year-old came forward and, together with the musicians, performed the witches' ride from Engelbert Humperdinck's opera "Hansel and Gretel" - as the video shows, a very special experience for the young conductor and for the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Horn player Sarah Willis shows a young concert visitor how a horn works.
“Meet the orchestra” – Family Concert with the 12 Cellists and the Brass Ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker
"Meet the Orchestra" – under this motto, the Education Programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker invited music lovers of all ages to the Philharmonie from 2006--2008. Especially for the many children in the audience, it was exciting to see how orchestral instruments work and what wonderful music you can make with them.
Children’s Concerts 3-2-1-GO! – 45-minute concert format with a captivating, entertaining programme is for children aged 2 to 5 years. The format features music that encourages children to sing along and join in, but also to sit quietly and listen. It is specifically tailored to the needs of little ones: Exciting, but not too complicated. Imaginative, but not intimidating. Entertaining, but not simplistic.
Every year: the big Christmas family concert.
A children’s opera is being written in Baden-Baden based on the great opera “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss, in cooperation with the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Deutsche Bank
Foundation’s “Akademie Musiktheater heute”. The story will be told for children in a completely new way on the basis of a new musical arrangement, musically accompanied by the musicians of
the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Cultural Cross Points – Creative Studio
Crossing musical borders and cultural encounters - that too is part of the education programme. In workshops and in the creative studio, participants come into contact with unfamiliar musical worlds.
Weekend workshop on “whirling dervishes”
The Songs of the Brothers: Turks, Kurds, Armenians – Choir project with the Turkish folk music group Kardeş Türküler
The education programme's creative studio – musical fun for participants of all ages.
Brazilian Rose Calheiros has rhythm in her blood, and she intends to convey it to interested amateur dancers at this Creative Studio, which is about contemporary dance. After an introduction into the various forms of contemporary dance she developed with her guests dance movements to certain rhythms, moods and specific works of classical music.
Talented youngsters...
...make their grand debut. Whether in the composition competition, the school orchestra extravaganza, the creative orchestra or the creative studio.
The winner of the composition competition in 2007 in discussion with musicians after the premiere of his award-winning work.
Chinese star pianist Lang Lang showed just how down-to-earth he still is when he came to the Philharmonie in Berlin in May 2010: He held a workshop where he worked with no less than 100 piano students on Schubert's Marche militaire No. 1 - relaxed and entertaining, but still with full concentration. / Recorded in the Berlin Philharmonie, 30 May 2010
In the creative orchestra, participants also have the opportunity to compose.
The School Orchestra Extravaganzas of the Berliner Philharmoniker's education programme are always a big event, and this year's meeting in February was no different. Six Berlin school orchestras had rehearsed excerpts from Grieg's Peer Gynt suites for the big day under the guidance of members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and the conductor of the public performance in the Philharmonie was none other than Sir Simon Rattle.
Social Institutions
The education programme also takes place beyond the walls of the Philharmonie - in childcare centres, nursing homes and schools.
The musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker pack their bags to take kindergarten children on a musical journey. For half an hour, the childcare centre revolves around music: the children can meet the musicians and their instruments and hear all about the instruments and the life of a professional musician.
EXPLORE CLASSICAL MUSIC! is an education initiative of the Berliner Philharmoniker. It aims to give young people and students around the world access to Classical music - regardless of social background. For this purpose, 500 schools and universities per year are provided with access to the Digital Concert Hall, the virtual concert hall of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
In the “Concerts to go” series, musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker in chamber music formations pay visits to various social institutions in Berlin and on tour to performance venues in order to make the musical activities of the orchestra available to those who can not attend concerts in the Philharmonie.
The Education Programme for the current season can be found here.
Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation
Photos: Archiv Berliner Philharmoniker
