Music is my first love – The Grand Finale

How does it feel to hold a flute? What feeling does the deep sound of a bassoon create in your entire body? Can drums actually sound different? And why are oboists often so red in the face? With professional guidance, this day offers you the opportunity to discover different instruments and try them out.

Digitally produced music is all over – on the radio, on CDs and also in live concerts, for example when so-called “loop stations” are used. But how does one actually work with sounds and machines? During the Family Day, a sound engineer will help you experiment with different sounds and equipment at our Loop, Sound and Arranging Station.

With high levels of energy and joy, the band HANS DIE WANZE has been repackaging the most beautiful German and international children’s songs since 2015. In its sing-along and join-in programmes for children aged 3 and up, the band performs classic children’s songs in fresh, grooving and swinging variations, transposing cheerfully from major to minor keys and inviting children and adults alike on fun musical journeys through childhood favourites. HANS DIE WANZE was developed by Johanna von Kuczkowski, vocalist, bass player, narrator and puppeteer, and a musicologist and pedagogue by training. With fun, movement and inspiring music, the band’s theatre programmes tell the story of “Hans die Wanze” (Hans the Bug), challenging and developing children’s minds and musicality in an interactive, age-appropriate manner. Inspiring its audiences to join in, the band is a highlight at (family) festivities of all kinds. HANS DIE WANZE regularly features professional jazz musicians from Berlin in its programmes.

Cast:
Johanna von Kuczkowski, vocals/double bass/moderator
Jonathan Robinson, guitar
Tobias Dettbarn, clarinet 

The forest elf LouLou has discovered an elephant in her magic forest – what can he be doing there? In order to scare the elephant a bit, she shows off her loud opera voice – but to her surprise, the elephant thinks her voice is beautiful. After some initial careful attempts at making contact – the elf is small and graceful land the elephant is huge – the two become friends. Now the elephant wants to sing as beautifully as the forest elf. Do you think that will work?

As part of the 2019 PODIUM Festival Esslingen, this interactive children’s concert was developed by Duo LouLou, featuring works by Camille Saint-Saëns, Hugo Wolf and Henry Purcell. In small gyms, cosy corners and senior citizens’ residence, young and old listeners have followed the story – now it comes to the Konzerthaus as part of our big Family Day!

Duo LouLou: Lisa Ströckens, vocals, and Stephan Goldbach, double bass
Idea and concept: Anna Frost
Conceptual consultant: Wiebke Rademacher 

In two workshops of the Junior Festival, the “European Chorus” and “European Jam”, participants will write their own hymn for the festival, and for Europe. This hymn can be rehearsed during our Family Day by people of all ages with professional guidance – a multi-generation chorus which will perform the hymn at the grand finale, with rich colours and sounds. Come sing with us!

Of course our Family Day will feature the results of the five workshop groups who have been busy for five days sharing music, thoughts and creativity. How does composing work? How can sounds, images and words be combined? What is the sound of Europe? And how do you interview a conductor or violinist? In performances, exhibitions and their own festival blog, participating children and teenagers show what they have learned.

© Christina Körte

Lea Philippa Heinrich studied music pedagogy (piano and jazz saxophone) as well as Spanish / Latin American Studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin’s Free University and at the Universidad de Granada in Spain. She was a fellow of the Second Masterclass on Music Education of the Körber Foundation and holds a certificate in Culture and Media Management from the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre. Since 2012 she has managed the music education programme of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, coordinating activities such as the Symphonic Mob, among others.
From 2015 to 2019 she was a guest docent and member of the academic staff for music education, management for musicians and interdisciplinary professionalization at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin. She also taught at the Detmold Music Academy.
Lea Philippa Heinrich has worked on the artistic, conceptual and organizational aspects of various music projects, e.g. for the Berlin Philharmonic’s education department, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Umculo Cape Festival in South Africa. In 2015 she chaired the audience jury for the European Composer Award of the Young Euro Classic festival.
She has moderated concerts at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival, the Kulturförderpunkt Berlin and as a music curator for the sculpture composition series at the Bode Museum in Berlin.

 In his homeland of Romania, Aaron Dan received his first piano and flute lessons and caused a stir when he won three competitions at the age of eleven, performing piano and flute concerti with symphony orchestra. He studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris and at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin. As a soloist, chamber musician and presenter, Aaron Dan is in high demand; he is a founding member of the ensemble Berlin Counterpoint, with which he performs at numerous major concert halls in Europe, and has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonie der Nationen, the Prussian Chamber Orchestra Prenzlau, the  Symphony Orchestra of the Oberbergischer Kreis, the Camerata Belgrade and the Orchestre de Flutes Français. In 2005 he won the First Prize and three Special Prizes at the international flute competition “The Winner of Belgrade” in Serbia. His work as a composer comprises chamber music, several choral works, the vocal symphony Im Anfang war das Wort (world premiere in Berlin in 2014), the children’s opera der kleine prinz and several pieces for children’s musical theatre as well as dozens of arrangements for his ensembles. In 2018 his alphabetic cycle on B-A-C-H was performed in three versions: as a septet (world premiere on Bach’s 333^rd birthday in Berlin at Pianosalon Christophori), in a version for flute and string orchestra (world premiere October 3, 2018 in Ludwigsburg) and as a trio for flute, violin and piano. Aaron Dan lives as a freelance flutist and composer in Berlin with his family.

aarondan.com 

Daniel Schellongowski is a professional composer and music performer, based in Berlin. He creates immersive audio-visual realities that break traditional templates. His work is composed of organically interwoven entities that create associative spaces and sensitive stimuli.  Daniel studied contemporary composition (University of the Arts Berlin) and musicology (Humboldt University Berlin). Besides contemporary score writing for music ensembles, he produces music for theatre, opera and film and teaches electronic composing and music theory.

schellongowski.de