The concerts planned to take place in Israel with the orchestra in October 2023 were cancelled, and after many tribulations the young musicians returned home to a reality unlike any they had known before.
The Jerusalem Music Center opened its recording studio and broadcast performances by the Young Philharmonic soloists live to audiences at home, hoping that music would help with its healing power for all who could listen. Indeed, thousands listened to these concerts.
Throughout the past two difficult years that Israel has known, we have witnessed again and again that music has healing and strengthening power and that it is as necessary to us as air for breathing and for the soul.
The connections with the State Academy of Music in Ochsenhausen and with the international faculty strengthened, and everyone aspired to carry out the project again with renewed forces and enable the next generation of young Israeli talents to have exceptional musical and cultural encounters.
The Althafen Foundation, Berlin joined as a central partner to the project out of recognition of its importance and from a deep commitment to promoting cultural initiatives that enable social transformation and opening new career paths for talented young musicians through digital media and cross-border cultural accessibility.
45 outstanding musicians from Israel and leading European schools will meet during this coming Sukkot holiday at the magnificent campus in Ochsenhausen. They will study in masterclasses, sing in choir and play in string orchestra under the guidance of international senior faculty. They will spend time together in nature, experience yoga and Qigong, and receive important tools and enrichment from the Althafen Foundation’s team of experts on developing sustainable musical careers in the digital age. The international collaboration will give young musicians a rare opportunity to share knowledge, forge professional connections and build deep and meaningful cultural bridges that will continue to resonate far beyond the course days.
But most of all, they will be able to discover the power inherent in listening and the strength of beautiful music.
Among the peak moments: a world premiere of a new work by composer Udi Perlman, based on the works of Josima Feldschuh, a gifted 13-year-old girl who wrote music in the Warsaw Ghetto. This work commemorates a voice that was cut short, and connects between generations, between pain and hope, between destruction and continuity.
The Music as Sanctuary Project is supported by the Embassy of the State of Israel in Germany as part of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany.
The fine faculty will include violinists Prof. Ida Bieler (USA), Prof. Leonid Kerbel (England/Belgium), Prof. Grigory Kalinovsky (USA), Prof. Boris Garlitsky (France/Germany), and Prof. Yair Kless (Israel/Austria); violist and conductor Prof. Zvi Carmeli; cellists Prof. Hans Jørgen Jensen (Denmark/USA), Prof. Leonid Gorokhov and Prof. Richard Aaron; and double bassist Prof. Caroline Emery (England).
In Germany and Israel, then and today and tomorrow, music is a sanctuary. It is home. For all who despite everything still breathe, still dream, still hope, still imagine, still connect, still touch. Beyond physical survival, beyond the daily struggle.
