Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rantzau Castle (Lübeck) , former seat of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival
Advertising board of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2012 - with the logo of the SHMF
Gut Emkendorf : Picnic at a music festival in the country

The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (SHMF) is one of the largest classical music festivals in Europe (173,000 visitors in 2018). It has been held annually in the summer months since 1986 at many different venues in Schleswig-Holstein as well as in neighboring Lower Saxony , in Hamburg and in the south of Denmark . In addition to the large concert halls, the festival also features unusual venues such as B. manor houses, barns, churches, palace gardens, ferries and shipyard buildings. The founding idea of ​​the SHMF was to organize classical concerts throughout the state and especially in rural regions. The music festivals in the country are the heart of the festival and offer a combined program of concerts, music education for children and culinary offers on various historical manor complexes in Schleswig-Holstein.

From 1996 to 2013, the artistic concept of the SHMF was characterized by an annually changing country focus. Since the 2014 season, the SHMF has been devoting a retrospective to changing composers and every year invites an outstanding artist as a so-called “portrait artist” to spend the festival summer with his own series of concerts and workshops in Schleswig-Holstein. Since 2002, the JazzBaltica jazz festival has also been supported by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Foundation.

Foundation and management

The pianist and conductor Justus Frantz , founder of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

The festival is organized by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Foundation, which was founded in 1995 and was based in Rantzau Castle in Lübeck's old town until 2019 .

In 1985 Justus Frantz , Helmut Schmidt and Uwe Barschel jointly developed the idea of ​​a transnational festival in Schleswig-Holstein in order to bring more cultural life to the rural federal state. Within a short period of time, prominent supporters such as Leonard Bernstein could be won for the idea . This contributed significantly to the fact that renowned musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin , Anne-Sophie Mutter , Svjatoslav Richter and Mstislaw Rostropowitsch performed for the first edition of the festival in 1986 .

The directorship held by the founding nine years Justus Frantz. He was followed by Franz Willnauer from 1996 to 1998. Together with Christoph Eschenbach as artistic director, Rolf Beck directed the festival from 1999 to 2002, and from 2002 to 2013 he was sole director. Christian Kuhnt has headed the SHMF since October 1, 2013. The JazzBaltica jazz festival first took place in 1991 and has been part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival since 2002, so it is also supported and organized by the foundation.

Förderverein Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival e. V.

The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival e. V. has existed since the festival was founded in 1985. In the first few years he was primarily responsible for the organization of the festival, for which the foundation is responsible today. The association continues to represent the main idea of ​​the festival to bring culture to rural regions: Of the currently more than 7,500 members, many are volunteer local councils responsible for the culinary catering of the artists during the concerts and the festival on site in represent their communities. The association also plays an important role in financing the SHMF through membership fees and donations.

Sponsors and supporters

The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival is supported by the commitment of businesses in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. The media partner is the North German Broadcasting Corporation . In addition, numerous concert sponsors and product partners support the festival both financially and through product donations. Small and medium-sized companies can also get involved as sponsors as members of the business initiative Economy & Music . The further funding of the festival consists of a portion raised by the foundation, funding from the state of Schleswig-Holstein and the income from ticket sales.

Promotion of excellence

The SHMF is committed to promoting talented young musicians through various initiatives that have a national impact.

Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra

The Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra was founded in 1987 by Leonard Bernstein and annually gathers around 120 international music students aged 26 or under who are selected at auditions in 30 cities in North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. As a scholarship, the musicians receive board and lodging as well as chamber music and vocal group lessons from renowned university lecturers and orchestra musicians. Principal Conductor has been Christoph Eschenbach since 2004. In addition, well-known soloists and conductors make music with the orchestra every year.

Master classes

As part of master courses, young musicians from all over the world have the opportunity every year to take lessons from artists and teachers in the premises of the Lübeck University of Music. The results from individual or ensemble lessons are then presented in concerts.

Cooperation with "Jugend musiziert"

Since 2008 the SHMF has sponsored the concert series Meisterschüler - Meister prize winners of the national competition of “ Jugend musiziert ”. During the summer of the festival you will perform together with internationally known instrumentalists.

The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe sponsorship award is also given to the winners of “Jugend musiziert”. At one of the five “rural music festivals”, the prize worth 5,000 euros is awarded for instruments that change every year. An audience award endowed with 500 euros will also be awarded.

"Leonard Bernstein Award"

Named after the co-founder of the SHMF, the Leonard Bernstein Award has been presented annually to an outstanding young musician since 2002 . The prize, endowed with 10,000 euros, is highly regarded internationally and is awarded at a joint concert by the winners and the festival orchestra.

Laureate of the Leonard Bernstein Award

year Surname instrument
2002 Long long piano
2003 Lisa Batiashvili violin
2004 Erik Schumann violin
2005 Jonathan Bliss piano
2006 Alisa Weilerstein violoncello
2007 Martin Grubinger Percussion
2008 Anna Vinnitskaya piano
2009 Leonard Elschenbroich violoncello
2010 Kit Armstrong piano
2011 David Aaron Carpenter viola
2012 Cameron Carpenter organ
2013 Jan Lisiecki piano
2014 Christopher Park piano
2015 Krzysztof Urbański Conducting
2016 Felix Klieser horn
2017 Kian Soltani violoncello
2018 Charles Yang violin
2019 Emily D'Angelo singing
2020 Stathis Karapanos flute

Hindemith Prize

Main article Hindemith Prize (including all award winners)

The Hindemith Prize has been awarded since 1990 and honors particularly talented young composers. It is endowed with 20,000 euros and associated with a composition commission. The newly created work will be premiered during the following festival season.

Music mediation

In addition to promoting excellence, the SHMF also has various music education initiatives.

The festival choir is made up of around 100 experienced amateur singers every year. For this purpose auditions will take place in the region of the festival. Under the direction of Nicolas Fink, the choir rehearses several programs every year, which are performed a cappella or in cooperation with various orchestras as part of the festival.

Since 2015 there has also been a weekend workshop format with 80 children and young people. Workshops have already been conducted by percussionist Martin Grubinger , jazz trombonist Nils Landgren , mandolinist Avi Avital and clarinetist Sabine Meyer . The finale of each workshop is a big final concert in the ACO-Thormannhalle in Rendsburg-Büdelsdorf.

The SHMF is also involved in music education for children and adolescents: in addition to family concerts and the children's music workshops at the “rural music festivals”, there have also been children's music festivals since 2003, which not only offer concerts for children but also a supporting program to join in.

In 2017 concerts under the title Zoom took place for the first time . Here a work is played twice in a row under the moderation of the conductor of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra: the first time the orchestra is distributed among the audience. By sitting right next to individual orchestral musicians and being able to perceive the piece in a new way, they should be able to enjoy a special concert experience. The work is then played again on the stage so that the audience can now relate the individual part they heard to the overall sound.

Programmatic focus

The SHMF has had programmatic priorities since 1996 that span the entire festival. Up to and including 2013, it was individual countries that were brought to the fore by the festival. Artists from the respective countries performed, and in addition to the classical repertoire, concerts with traditional music were also on the program.

When Christian Kuhnt took over as artistic director in 2013, the previous country focus was replaced by a composer retrospective and the so-called portrait artist .

Country focus (until 2013)

year Country focus
1996 Austria
1997 Norway
1998 Italy
1999 France
2000 United States
2001 Finland
2002 Spain / Latin America
2003 Great Britain
2004 Czech Republic
2005 Japan
2006 Netherlands
2007 Hungary
2008 Russia
2009 Germany
2010 Poland
2011 Turkey
2012 China
2013 Baltic States

Composer retrospective and artist portrait (from 2014)

year Composers retrospective Portrait artist
2014 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Sol Gabetta
2015 Peter Tchaikovsky Martin Grubinger
2016 Joseph Haydn András ship
2017 Maurice Ravel Avi Avital
2018 Robert Schumann Sabine Meyer
2019 Johann Sebastian Bach Janine Jansen
2020 Carl Nielsen Xavier de Maistre

Venues and venues

Every year SHMF concerts take place in more than 60 locations and in over 100 venues, which makes the festival one of the largest festivals in Europe.

literature

  • Axel Nickolaus: SHFO. Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra 1989–2014. Portofolia Verlag, Kiel 2014, ISBN 978-3-945638-01-9 .
  • Ulrike Ohl: There is music in there. The venues of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Wachholtz, Neumünster / Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-529-06306-0 .
  • Axel Nickolaus, Michael Ruff u. a .: Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. The festival between the seas. Photo tape. Murmann, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-938017-53-8 .
  • Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Hrsg.): The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. A country is picking up the strings. Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1990, ISBN 3-925835-89-X .
  • Justus Frantz (Ed.): On the way. The orchestra of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. A poetic journey through pictures with Leonard Bernstein and Sergiu Celibidache. Hamburg 1988.
  • Werner Burkhardt, Beatrice Kolster, a. a .: Symphonies in mansions and barns. The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Rasch and Röhring Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-89136-196-3 .

Web links

Commons : Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beatrice Kolster: The story of a success. In: Werner Burkhardt, Beatrice Kolster, u. a .: Symphonies in mansions and barns. The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Rasch and Röhring Verlag, Hamburg 1988, pp. 128-138, here: p. 129.
  2. ↑ Joachim Mischke: Kuhnt remains SHMF boss until 2022 . ( Abendblatt.de [accessed on October 11, 2018]).