Education

QuerKlang und QuerKlang+

Artistic experimentation at school

with music, theatre and fine arts

Several children are sitting on chairs, three children are standing. Most of them are holding up cardboard signs with painted pictures or the letters "A" or "U". Some of the children's mouths are open and form vowels.

Querklang und Querklang+ © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

QuerKlang premieres collective compositions by Berlin schoolchildren. With the launch of the pilot project QuerKlang+, the 20 years of experience of the programme and UNESCO model “QuerKlang – Experimental Composing at School” will now expand into the artistic fields of theatre and the visual arts.

As part of QuerKlang, pupils get the opportunity to explore sounds, relate them to each other and make their discoveries heard in world premieres. Now, for the first time, as part of QuerKlang+, pupils and teachers will work with artists and student teachers in various artistic disciplines – from theatre and performance art to contemporary music – and develop collaborations as a team, which will be presented as a cross-section of the three disciplines as part of MaerzMusik 2024.

The students and their teachers come from the following schools: Robert-Blum-Gymnasium – Schöneberg, Romain-Rolland-Gymnasium – Reinickendorf, Rosa-Parks-Grundschule – Kreuzberg, Nelson-Mandela-Schule – Wilmersdorf, Max-von-Laue Schule – Lichterfelde, Hector-Peterson-Schule – Kreuzberg, Friedensburg-Oberschule – Charlottenburg, Leo-Lionni-Grundschule – Wedding and Parzival-Schule – Zehlendorf, Königin-Luise-Stiftung – Dahlem, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium – Pankow as well as the Musikgymnasium Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Mitte and the Fichtenberg Oberschule – Steglitz, both of which are also part of the NACHHALL project. They are working with composer and percussionist Max Andrzejewski; composer and sound artist Alexey Kokhanov; visual artist Gunilla Jähnichen; director and performance artist Verena Lobert; actress, musician and director Cathrin Romeis; musician and director Ulrike Ruf; visual artist and video artist Regina Teichs; musician, visual artist and performer Hajo Toppius; composer, performer and sound artist Steffi Weismann; director Daniel Brunet; the visual artist and sound artist Zsolt Sörés, visual artist Stefania Migliorati, composer Max Murray and composer Irene Quero, both of whom are also part of NACHHALL; as well as the students and lecturers in teacher training from the Institutes for Music Education, Art Didactics and Aesthetic Education and Theatre Education.

QuerKlang and NACHHALL is a project of QuerKlang gUG in collaboration with kultkom - Kerstin Wiehe, Berlin University of the Arts / klangzeitort and Berliner Festspiele / MaerzMusik. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family.

QuerKlang+ is a pilot project in the artistic teacher training programme at the Berlin University of the Arts in collaboration with QuerKlang. Funded by the Senate Department for Science, Health and Care.