Open Jazz House School

The Open Jazz House School eV was founded in 1980 in Cologne by musicians from the group of the Initiative Kölner Jazz Haus eV as a free center for improvised and popular music in Cologne. The current director is Rainer Linke , who also co-founded the school. New foundations in Aachen, Bremen and Freiburg took a role model at the Cologne Jazz House School. From this initiative Kölner Jazz Haus eV, the concert promoter Kölner Stadtgarten emerged .

history

The first courses for improvised and popular music took place in the historic Bayenturm . In 1980, the Jazzhausschule was accepted into the North Rhine-Westphalian Music Working Group. In 1983 she set up the first courses for children. After the Bayenturm was assigned to the Feminist Archive as the FrauenMediaTurm, the Jazzhausschule found office and, above all, rehearsal rooms in the Eigelsteintorburg from 1995 . On October 31, 2008, the Open Jazz House School eV was awarded the honorary prize of the WDR Jazz Prize in the jazz pedagogy category. The jury's justification is as follows: “The liveliness and creativity of the scene in North Rhine-Westphalia is exemplarily supported by the longstanding work of the Open Jazz House School in Cologne. Your educational offer in jazz and improvised music created the basis for the young professionals at North Rhine-Westphalian music academies in the first place. In addition to well-founded instrumental training for children and young people, the lecturers at the Open Jazzhaus School in Cologne have been promoting students who are particularly talented and want to train as a professional jazz musician for almost 30 years. "

Youngster and teen bands

The Jazzhausschule focuses on working with children and young people. She puts the emphasis on making music in the band. The concept of the so-called youngster bands is aimed at primary school children from the 1st grade. From day one, the children should see themselves as a band. Starting with the band work, training is given on a special individual instrument that is used in the group. In a group, the children learn to play all 'classic' band instruments, i.e. drums, guitar, keyboards and bass, without the need for separate instrumental lessons or previous musical knowledge. The repertoire covers the entire spectrum of popular music, but also first improvisations. If the children go to secondary school, the training in the teen bands continues. Performances are also an integral part of the band's work. Music educators, preferably with their own artistic experience, act as leaders of the bands.

Cooperation with schools

The Jazzhausschule has been cooperating with numerous schools in and around Cologne since the late 1980s. A particularly prominent model project is “MuProMandi”, in which the Manderscheider Platz community elementary school in Cologne and the Jazzhausschule are installing a music profile “New and Improvised Music”.

Socio-cultural work

As a cultural and educational specialist institution, the Open Jazz House School designs and organizes socio-cultural projects that are intended to support the creative, responsible and independent use of music and promote the integration of ethnic, religious and social groups. Examples of this are the hip-hop musicals “Colored Children”, which was awarded the NRW Youth Culture Prize in 1998, or “Get Up!” (2008). In the latter case, students from a problematic district of Cologne “dealt with future plans, their self-image and social conditions in advance, and found artistic forms of expression in order to present all of this to a broad audience”. The network project of the cities of Bergheim, Troisdorf, Brühl and Siegburg "Alle Achtung!" (2001) also sees itself as the prevention of right-wing radicalism and xenophobia.

Awards

• 2012: Youth Culture Prize of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Rheinland

Web links

• Homepage
• Anselm Weyer: For thirty years music from the beginning. The Youngster and TeenBand concept of the Open Jazz House School Cologne. In: Neue Musikzeitung 9/10. 59th year

Individual evidence

1. ↑ WDR Jazz Prize 2008 goes to Gabriel Pérez and Hubert Nuss / Awarded at the WDR 3 jazz.cologne festival on October 31, 2008-09-02 - WDR Press Lounge. In: wdr.de. January 10, 2012, archived from the original on October 1, 2012 ; Retrieved October 1, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Jazz Haus Schule 2008 ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ KStA ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ NMZ
5. ↑ NMZ
6. ↑ BpB
7. ↑ KSTA  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Rundschau-Online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ BpB (PDF file; 2.00 MB)
10. ↑ Source: http://www.wdr3.de/kulturnachrichten/details.html?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=31614&cHash=31bd9514fd99321403b432abe8b79747  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.