Beethovenfest Bonn 2018 – An inspiring approach from Deutsche Telekom

With two evening concerts in the framework of this year’s 2018 Beethovenfest in Bonn (August 31 to September 23), Deutsche Telekom is once again finding a fresh and inspiring approach for this special festival. On September 20, pianist Alberto Ferro will honor Claude Debussy’s memory with a recital entitled “’Pour le piano’ – Debussy zu Ehren” (“’For the piano’ – In honor of Debussy”). On September 15 (i.e. a few days earlier), a concert aimed especially at friends of experimental classical music will be held, with the Music:Eyes ensemble presenting an audiovisual experience built around the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. That evening event will be organized by student managers supported by Deutsche Telekom. The theme for this year’s Beethovenfest is “fate” (“Schicksal”).

We know we’d love to hear Beethoven’s Fifth, but would it make sense to see it, too? That is the unusual question the student managers for the Beethovenfest found themselves asking. The Music:Eyes ensemble will provide an answer on September 15, in the Telekom Forum on Landgrabenweg in Bonn, with an arrangement based on sketches of Paul Klee from 1921 and on the work of Stephen Malinowski, creator of the Music Animation Machine (Malinowski, an American, is a YouTube star whose credits include the animations for Björk’s “Biophilia” project). As an added bonus, the ensemble will present a world premiere 3D version of its arrangement, which expands Beethoven’s music both electronically (with thundering basses, for example) and spatially. The concert, moderated by Etienne Abelin, a Swiss director and violinist, will segue directly into a remix dance party.

The ensemble event is being organized by eight young people who are upper-grade students at five secondary schools in Bonn. They are this year’s participants in the Beethovenfest student manager initiative, which Deutsche Telekom has been supporting for the past eight years. Each year’s student manager team works for a period of months on the organization, financing and marketing of a concert presented by Deutsche Telekom.

The September 20 concert, which will be presented at Deutsche Telekom’s Bonn headquarters, will be a Prizewinners’ Concert that is sure to be another highlight of the Beethovenfest’s diverse program. It will feature Alberto Ferro, who honors Claude Debussy’s memory with a very personal, fresh and youthful approach to the music of the great French composer, who would have turned 100 this year. Alberto Ferro is the winner of last year’s International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn. In that piano competition, Ferro, 21, won out on the strength of his formal solidity, clear structures, tonal sensitivity and emotionality. Interestingly enough, Ferro and Debussy share a kinship that goes beyond a love of Impressionist music. Both have a history as prizewinners, since in 1884 Debussy was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, which came with a scholarship and a four-year stay at the Villa Medici in Rome.

The International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn enjoys a strong international reputation, and it cultivates close ties to Bonn, the Beethoven city. The next International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn piano competition for young pianists will take place in early December 2019, and thereby herald the Beethoven 2020 anniversary, a celebratory year marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Along with cash prizes, prizewinners receive a range of additional opportunities to showcase their abilities in solo concerts and as soloists with orchestras worldwide.

Information about the Beethovenfest Bonn, and tickets to the concerts, are available at en.beethovenfest.de.

Information about the “Beethovenfest Student Manager” funding project is available at en.beethovenfest.de/ludwigunddu/schuelermanager.

Information about the International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn is available at www.telekom-beethoven-competition.de/en.