Ten Years of Hindemith Days
The Hindemith Institute in Frankfurt moved into the premises of the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt in January 1991. Over the course of the years, through daily encounters and many discussions concerning the work of Paul Hindemith, there developed a fruitful exchange between the composer's institute as a scholarly institution and the Frankfurt Music Academy as an artistic educational institution. Finally, in the spring of 2005, the idea of using this connection for a regular project ripened, thus reaching both the students of the Academy and the general public in Frankfurt. In order to ensure the continuity of this project from the outset, Hindemith's birthday – 16 November – was agreed upon as a fixed annual date.
Already during the first year, students from several areas of study committed themselves to the project. Hindemith's compositions could be heard during the entire day in the foyer of the Music Academy. Students of musicology and music pedagogy presented an exhibition on "Hindemith and Frankfurt" in cooperation with the Institute.
Since then, both partners have succeeded in firmly establishing this birthday concert in the programme of the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. Each year, different areas of focus illuminate new facets of Hindemith's oeuvre, frequently supplemented by scholarly contributions. For a long time now, other events have been added to the actual birthday concert on the evening of 16 November at the Music Academy. For example, a permanent part of the programme is the concert in the Hindemith Cabinet in the Cowherds' Tower in the Frankfurt district of Sachsenhausen, where the composer once lived and an exhibition on his life and work is on view. There is also the concert at Schott Music Publishers in Mainz, continuing the composer's decade-long collaboration and friendship with his publishers. Thus the birthday concert has developed over the past ten years into a small festival today - the so-called Hindemith Days, which this year also include, for the first time, the "Midday Concerts at the Frankfurt Museum of History" - yet another cooperating partner.
We are delighted that the Municipal Official for Culture and Science of the City of Frankfurt am Main, Professor Dr. Felix Semmelroth, has agreed to become the patron of the Hindemith Days.
LS
Header: (c) Björn Hadem 2014