It all began in September 2005, thanks to pianist LARS VOGT's
idea and original initiative. Vogt realized that "music-making
in the home is becoming a true rarity. We can't expect a child's
first emotional contact with music to take place within the
family nowadays. We thus need to offer such opportunities in
the schools. In an ideal world, schools would provide children
with broad access to music, and every pupil would learn to play
an instrument."
Ideally, Lars Vogt and his fellow musicians would like to visit
schools all over Germany - in the hopes of inspiring and supporting
such encounters, and in order to show schoolchildren what classical
music could mean in their lives, particularly if they choose
to become musicians themselves. Thus, they might even feel motivated
to learn an instrument one day!
Following Lars Vogt's inaugural session with schoolchildren
on 14 September 2005 in the
Anna Freud School in Cologne, a further series of outstanding
artists have joined the ranks of "Rhapsody in School":
Antje Weithaas (violin), Tanja Tetzlaff (cello) Christian
Tetzlaff (violin), Alban Gerhardt (cello), Daniel Müller-Schott
(cello), Sharon Kam (clarinet), Emanuel Pahud (flute), Claudio
Bohorquez (cello) and Julia Fischer (violin) - to name only
a few! Schoolchildren in Berlin, Remscheid, Fellbach, Burgdorf,
Hamburg, etc. were enthralled.
Many pupils spontaneously decided to attend "their star's"
evening performance in order to see and hear him/her live
on stage -- some of them even brought their parents along!
A number of them were attending a classical music concert
for the first time in their lives.
In the future, as well, we can expect further school visits
of renowned musicians such as Marie-Luise Neunecker, Tabea
Zimmermann, Sabine Meyer, Julia Fischer and Daniel Müller-Schott.
The musicians all participate on an honorary basis. The project
envisions a series of long-term goals, one of which is for
individual artists to "adopt" a specific town, for
instance.
SABINE VON IMHOFF: svi@rhapsody-in-school.de
for Rhapsody INTERNATIONAL please contact ERNESTINE VARGA: artists_in_school@yahoo.com
We are grateful for initial financial support generously
provided by the PwC Foundation,
the "Musiker
Hautnah" Association , the RheinEnergie Stiftung
Kultur and the G. Henle Publishers.
Furthermore, we are glad to be members of the "Kulturstiftung
der Länder" network, see www.kinderzumolymp.de.
Cellist ALBAN GERHARDT represented us at that network's founding
event in 2005.
I heartily thank everyone involved in building and maintaining
this website: Wiebke Stenner who has designed and donated
the logo. Special thanks is certainly also due to all Rhapsody
In School participating musicians, along with the journalists,
photographers, teachers and schoolchildren who have granted
permission for us to publish their photos, articles and transcripts
here.
We hope you enjoy our site, and we'd be grateful for any comments
or suggestions!
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