- Jazz-rock singer Helen Schneider performs classic American songs with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
- Piano concert with Filippo Gorini, winner of the International Telekom Beethoven Competition 2015
- Deutsche Telekom supports students managing the Young Beethoven Festival
- Cultural involvement underscores ties with headquarters city, Bonn, and with the region
At this year’s Beethoven Festival in Bonn, (September 9 – October 9, 2016) Deutsche Telekom, as the main sponsor, is presenting two very special concert experiences and thus paying tribute to this year’s motto, "Revolutions." Lovers of classic American songs will find the concert involving Helen Schneider and the Stuttgart Chamber orchestra a must-see experience. Conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, the rock singer and style icon of the 1980s will be presenting songs by Charles Ives, in the Telekom Forum on Landgrabenweg on October 8, together with the ensemble. This concert is being organized and carried out by the student manager project of the Young Beethovenfest, which Deutsche Telekom has now been supporting for six years. There will also be the chance to see Filippo Gorini again. The winner of the 2015 International Telekom Beethoven Competition will perform in the Collegium Leoninum as part of a piano concert on November 21.
After she achieved the status of a rock singer and a style icon of the 1980s, Helen Schneider completely reinvented herself. The Brooklyn-born singer worked on the songs of Charles Ives, together with the American conductor, Dennis Russell Davies. The "father of modern American music" influenced several generations of American composers with his experimental works. The combination of unusual music in the classic American modern tradition and a star of the jazz-rock field, one of the best German chamber orchestras, and a charismatic conductor will create a completely new concert experience.
The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1945, is one of the most renowned ensembles of its kind and for more than 70 years now has occupied a prominent position in the international orchestral landscape. The ensemble assumes its task as a musical ambassador through intensive guest appearances all over the world. After concerts in France, Spain, India, and Nepal in recent years, the orchestra most recently toured and performed guest appearances in China and Japan, South Korea, Austria, and the Netherlands.
The concert is being organized by six young people between the ages of 16 and 17, as part of the student manager project of the Young Beethovenfest. Acting as trainee managers, students from four Bonn secondary schools will receive professional instruction from staff of the Beethoven Festival and support from Deutsche Telekom in the planning, organization, and execution of a concert. This year, a very special challenge awaits the trainee managers: For the first time they will have to get an entire orchestra on to the stage. Before the performance starts, they will hold their own press conference, negotiate budgets, acquire sponsors, hire agencies and equipment companies, and design flyers and their own website. The success story of students acting as managers is starting its eighth year.
The fact of the youngest participant winning first prize in an international piano competition has been known. But when the pianist taking part in the final of the competition is also engaged in his first-ever solo performance with an orchestra, that is a minor sensation. This was the achievement of the twenty-year-old Italian pianist, Filippo Gorini, at the 2015 International Telekom Beethoven Competition. It was a matter of honor for the young artiste to make his debut now at the Beethoven Festival. Gorini confidently begins his recital with two Beethoven sonatas, Opus 90 and Opus 110. There follows a gesture of respect toward one of the most famous Italian composers, Salvatore Sciarrino, and last not least, the grandiose cycle of Romantic character études – the 24 preludes Opus 28 by Frédéric Chopin.
For further information about the Bonn Beethoven Festival and for tickets to the concerts, visit www.beethovenfest.de and www.schuelermanager-beethovenfest.de.
For further information about the International Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn, visit www.telekom-beethoven-competition.de.
About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 156 million mobile customers, 29 million fixed-network lines and around 18 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2015). The Group provides fixed-network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet, and Internet-based TV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has around 225,200 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of 69.2 billion euros in the 2015 financial year – around 64 percent of it outside Germany.