Around 20,000 young musicians between the ages of six and 27 have registered for the 60th edition of Jugend musiziert.
Jugend musiziert starts its anniversary year with regional competitions in 135 regions in Germany and at around 35 German schools abroad. The competition year ends with the national competition from May 25th to June 2nd. The host city is Zwickau with support from several surrounding cities: Werdau, Meerane and Reichenbach im Vogtland.
To celebrate the anniversary, a call to former participants was launched on the social media channels of the national competition Jugend musiziert to share their experiences and memories with Jugend musiziert in stories, videos or photos. There is also the social media series “Throwback Thursday”, in which photos of the national competitions Jugend musiziert from the past 60 years are published every Thursday.
For 60 years now, Jugend musiziert has been the world’s largest competition for young musicians in Germany, covering the entire spectrum of instruments and making music together. Since 1992, there has been an all-German competition, in which important elements of the ambitious East German competition landscape have been integrated. Only in 2020, individual parts of the competition had to be canceled due to Corona.
The competition is advertised this year for the solo categories: piano, harp, voice, drum set (pop) and guitar (pop) as well as for the ensemble categories chamber music for string instruments, chamber music for wind instruments, accordion chamber music, special ensembles : New music, as well as for the new category chamber music for mixed ensembles and the category Jumu open.
On the occasion of the anniversary, WESPE, the weekend of special prizes, will not take place in autumn as usual in 2023, but as part of the national competition Jugend musiziert. The WDR 3 Klassikpreis competition of the city of Münster ends the musical competition year on September 23 and 24, 2023. Selected ensembles are called upon to compete with each other in the interpretation of works from the extended German-Austrian classical tradition.
At the end of September, the central conference of Jugend musiziert takes place in Hanover, where representatives of all competition levels come together and discuss the strategic further development of Jugend musiziert. The central conference is only held every five years.
The celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Jugend musiziert will culminate in the big anniversary concert by the German Music Council on October 19, 2023 in the Philharmonie Berlin.
In addiition, we would like to introduce you to the founder of Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert and EMCY: Dr. Eckart Rohlfs. Eckart Rohlfs was born in Tübingen in 1929. He played the flute, piano and organ and studied journalism, musicology and Italian. In 1952, together with Herbert Barth and Bernhard Bosse, he founded the Neue Musikzeitung in Regensburg. He is co-founder of the “Jeunesse Musicales Deutschland”, was project director of Jugend musiziert for 33 years and founded the European Union of Music Competition for Youth (EMCY) in 1970. In 1988 and 2000, he received the Federal Cross of Merit for his work in music.
We would like to thank as well Dr. Rohlfs for all his marvellous work and happy 60th anniversary Jugend musiziert 🥳
Source: www.brawoo.de & Jugend musiziert
