Musik

Even before he was elected Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1999 Sir Simon Rattle announced he was going to devote his attention to young people. His goal was to make sure that every young person in Berlin visited the Philharmonic at least once in their life. He set about realising this goal in 2002 with the Education Programme of the Berlin Philharmonic.

In December 2004, teachers from four schools and over 200 pupils, representatives from two dance groups and a group of senior citizen dance enthusiasts, the project team of the Berlin Philharmonic and the choreographers met for the first time. Frau Czerwonatis, primary school teacher at the Bruno-Bettelheim comprehensive primary school in Berlin Marzahn-Hellersdorf, thought to herself, “How is that going to work?“ The school pupils were expected to learn to dance The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky in just two months and then perform it at the Treptow Arena in front of an audience of several thousand – accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic.

The dance teachers started the rehearsals in small groups under the direction of Susannah Broughton, who has experience of working with people from diverse social classes: in England she offers dance programmes in prisons, for example. “We want to reach people who don’t otherwise have anything to do with music“, she explains. The ages of her pupils in this project ranged from nine to 77.

Discipline and concentration

Clear rules were laid down for the pupils at the very beginning of the rehearsals. Discipline and concentration were the order of the day, things that are not always familiar to school pupils, as Raik Maser, teacher at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn secondary school in Kreuzberg, says. For his pupils, all of whom come from immigrant families, there was another obstacle. They were supposed to dance barefoot the whole time. “At first the whole team refused, was uncertain, felt naked and exposed.“ However, in the next rehearsal the conditions were accepted.

“What’s special about this project is that we worked with a nearby grammar school“, Maser continued. In terms of the social backgrounds and the level of education it was a meeting of two totally different worlds. “It was a whole new experience for our pupils.“ On an interpersonal level, friendships developed and prejudices were overcome. That breeds self-confidence.

But the pupils’ prejudices were not just directed at other people but also at other music. Hardly any of them had experienced classical music and dance up to that point. One of the pupils taking part, Onur Celik, was so delighted that he is still dancing with an independent dance group today. At the start he was teased by his fellow pupils with comments like, “Are you gay or what?“ The small children also responded well to the music. “In art class the children often ask if they can put on a classical music cassette while they’re working“, says Ms Czerwonatis, commenting on the change. That is quite different to the pop they listen to the rest of the time. “The pupils were delighted. For many children it’s a highlight that we didn’t have, even as adults.“

After ten weeks the groups and their respective dance parts were all brought together. The show was an complete success.

Music is not a luxury but a fundamental need

"We want to make music accessible to a broad public", says Simon Rattle. The orchestra wants to open itself to the city it calls home. From now on it’s not just the well-to-do that should come to the concerts; the Philharmonic is there for everyone, explains Henrike Grohs, programme manager of the Education Department at the Berlin Philharmonic. The creative projects take the repertoire of the orchestra as their point of departure and make the world of music accessible in a very practical way.

In its dance education programme, entitled “Zukunft@Bphil“, the Berlin Philharmonic doesn’t just work with schools; members of the orchestra also work with inmates of Berlin’s prisons, for example. 24 projects overall have been realised since the introduction of the programme.

Partnerships with Berlin institutions, like those with the Commissioner for Integration of the Berlin Senate and the youth programme of the House of World Cultures, aim to help develop the work of Zukunft@BPhil in Berlin on a long-term basis. But there’s more to the scheme than the socio-political dimension. The musicians themselves also draw valuable input from the youth project. Rattle lists communication, concentration and improvisation as key examples of this.

The programme reached its high point and enjoyed widespread media and public attention with the release of its film “Rhythm is it!“, which was shown in cinemas in 2004. The film accompanies three of the 250 children and young people from Berlin on their way to performing Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps.