Six projects selected for special funding for musical projects for children and young people

The jury, which was assembled especially for this special grant, selected projects from Greece, England, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland:

Composing Sound Paintings is a series of creative workshops for children aged between five and ten at the Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki. The children learn about sounds as natural phenomena. They discover that silence is also an important tool in musical composition. The significance of time in music will play just as important a role as the playful exploration of graphic notation.

Spitalfields Music is realising three singing projects for local schools. In each school, three workshops are held with the children and young people before the more than 250 young singers come together for a dress rehearsal and a public final performance. The repertoire is a colourful mix. In addition to traditional British folk music, works from the 154 countries of origin of the pupils and compositions by young composers will also be performed.

Organised by the Musica Strasbourg festival, Mini Musica is a festival for young people. Children up to the age of 10 can experience contemporary music in workshops, concerts and hands-on activities. The aim of Mini Musica is to explore the sensory, emotional and social dimensions of music and art with children.

The ensemble arcimboldo’s project rau·sch·end 2025–1898 focuses on a work by Mauricio Kagel: 1898 for children’s voices and instruments. Based on Kagel’s sound material, Abril Padilla will compose a second piece for children’s voices and speaking tubes entitled DE·MO in collaboration with the children.

Several tables, packed with crockery, glasses, junk and stuff. Is this art or can it go in the bin? Here, trivial things come to life and tell an ambiguous story with an absurd ending. A mini-drama that unfolds at the kitchen table.  With this project, the Schallfeld Ensemble promotes interdisciplinary engagement with music and theatre while also providing a creative approach to sustainability, as everyday materials and ‘junk’ are upcycled into components of a musical theatre piece.

In the  play_full-project the Stegreif Orchestra is taking on a one-year sponsorship of two youth orchestras: the Symphony Orchestra of the Gymnasium bei St. Stephan in Augsburg and the Landesjugendensemble Neue Musik des Landesmusikrats Berlin. Young instrumentalists learn a new, free way of dealing with and accessing music, detached from the musical score, and create a new, accessible concert experience through movement, original spatial concepts and performative intensity.