Belvedere Palace Music High School

Belvedere Palace Music High School
type of school	State special high school
founding	1872 by Carl Müllerhartung
place	Weimar
country	Thuringia
Country	Germany
Coordinates	50 ° 56 '56 " N , 11 ° 20' 48" E Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '56 " N , 11 ° 20' 48" E
carrier	Thuringian Ministry of Culture
student	about 120
Teachers	around 23 (high school), around 58 (music practice)
management	Wolfgang Haak
Website	www.musikgymnasium-belvedere.de

The Schloss Belvedere music high school is a state special high school in Weimar . Musically gifted children and young people are taught there from the 5th grade. The school complex with boarding school is located approx. 5 km south of the center of Weimar in the landscape park of the rococo palace “ Belvedere ”.

history

1775-1946

At the end of the 18th century, Christoph Martin Wieland (1775) and Duchess Anna Amalia (1799) made the first efforts to found a music school in Weimar . In 1848, this idea was taken up by Franz Liszt , who was then the musical director of the court orchestra and the court theater . The Weimar Orchestra School was founded in 1872 by Carl Müllerhartung (1834–1908), inspired by Liszt and his students. Müllerhartung was appointed music director in 1865 at Liszt's suggestion. Since 1877, the orchestra and music school offered preparatory courses for children. Two choirs and the school orchestra played a major role in the musical life of Weimar and its surroundings at that time. In 1885 opera courses for musically gifted children and young people were added. In 1902 the school was renamed "Grand Ducal Music School" and in 1930 it was renamed "State University of Music". In 1945 the college and preschool for musically gifted boys and girls was closed, but reopened in 1946.

1947-1990

First the theater department, which left the university association in 1947, moved into the premises in Belvedere as an independent university. After the theater school had moved to Leipzig in 1953, the pre-school area of the university was able to move in. In 1958 the school became the lower level of the Franz Liszt University of Weimar, which in 1962 was renamed “Special School for Music of the Liszt School of Music Weimar”. After completing Class 10 II, a music university degree was possible.

Since 1990

View over the terrace, on the right the outside staircase to the first floor

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the special school was subordinated to the Thuringian Ministry of Culture and an “Association of Friends and Former Students of the Special School for Music Weimar, Schloss Belvedere e. V. “founded. In 1991, as part of the educational reform, the school was renamed “Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere Weimar”. A year later the music high school gave up the dilapidated cavalier houses at Belvedere Palace and was housed in containers in the Ilm-Aue and other alternative quarters in Weimar for several years .

In 1994 the music high school became a UNESCO project school. The following year the foundation stone was laid for the new music high school in the park of Belvedere Palace , which was completed and moved into in 1996. The building resembles the iconic Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier . It was financed by Deutsche Bank AG and planned and implemented by the Cologne architects Thomas van den Valentyn and Seyed Mohammed Oreyzi. The modern design in the style of New Building was awarded the Thuringian State Prize for Architecture and Urban Development in 1996 and the German Critics' Prize for Architecture in 1997. After structural damage had set in, the roof and facades as well as the outdoor facilities made of natural stone or wood were renewed in 2018 and the electrical installations were supplemented with modern network technology.

In September 2004 one of the noble houses of the baroque palace complex, the "Mozarthaus", which was taken over in October 1999, was inaugurated and occupied. In this building, which was financed by the Free State of Thuringia, there are 26 new practice rooms, a choir hall and a sports hall. Parts of the facade and roof have also been renovated twice since the first completion in 2004.

School profile

Music high school (interior)

The Belvedere Castle Music High School is a special high school. After passing an aptitude test, in addition to school education, students from year 5 receive intensive musical support through individual lessons in instrumental training , group lessons in music theory , ear training and rhythm , class lessons in musical studies and ensemble music in choir , orchestra or chamber music . They are taught by professors and lecturers from the Liszt School of Music Weimar . Every six months, the musical performance of the students is checked in exam auditions on the main and secondary instrument. Many of the students successfully take part in national and international competitions. Schoolchildren and ensembles play regularly in concerts and at representative events of the Free State of Thuringia. All orchestral instruments, piano , harpsichord , recorder , organ , accordion and guitar are taught. The musical training is completely financed by the Free State of Thuringia .

Due to the low number of students in the lower grades, grades 5 and 6 are often taught across grades. Class 11sp, which is inserted between Class 10 and Class 11, relieves the upper grades. In this way, the grammar school curriculum can be spread over three years from two years while maintaining the high musical standards. Since the boarding school is attended by students from all over Germany, 5-day school weeks (Mon to Fri) and 6-day school weeks (Mon to Sat) alternate in order to enable trips home on the two-week "long weekends". In addition to the first foreign language English, Italian , the language of music, is taught. Due to the cooperation with the Liszt School of Music Weimar, the vacation dates in Belvedere differ from those of other Thuringian schools.

Since about half of the students come from all of Thuringia and half from all of Germany, most of them live in the boarding school , which is attached to the music high school. Some students even come from abroad. Every other weekend, the students drive home to their families. Boarding school accommodation costs around € 3000 per year.

building

The actual grammar school, also known as the House in the Park , was built in 1995 and 1996 in the classic modern style. Next to this is the three-sided courtyard, which was built between 1730 and 1740. The corner building is used as a boarding school, the old inn houses the administration of the grammar school as well as the boarding school and other boarding and practice rooms. To the east of this complex is the Mozart House as one of the gentleman's houses of the Belvedere Palace. It was built at the same time as the palace from 1724. The Mozart House consists of three parts of the building. On the one hand the tower house, which houses practice and classrooms. In the nave there is a small hall next to the practice rooms. The third part of the house, the arch construction, is used as a gym.

Views of the Belvedere Palace Music High School
Mozarthaus, in front the tower house, on the right the arch building
Dreiseithof, on the left the boarding school building, on the right the Alte Gasthof
Old inn, seat of administration
Music high school from the west
Entrance hall of the house in the park

Support association

Association of Friends and Supporters of the Belvedere Castle Weimar e. V.

TV series dreams, tears, sounds

In 2007/2008 ARD filmed a 13-part documentary soap about the music high school. Five children are accompanied in their probationary year.

literature

Reinhard Schau : The music high school Schloss Belvedere in Weimar. Past and present . Böhlau Verlag GmbH & Cie, Cologne Weimar Vienna. 2010
Reinhard Schau: The Weimar Belvedere. An educational institution between the time of Goethe and the present . Böhlau Verlag GmbH & Cie, Cologne Weimar Vienna. 2006
M. Sack: A ringing stadium - a special kind of anniversary present: Thomas van den Valentyn's Weimar Music High School . In: THE TIME. Edition of April 22, 1996.
Article: From school days , In: Bauwelt. 28/1996, page 1630ff.

Web links

Commons : Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere - collection of images, videos and audio files