The symposium "Kirchen, Kult & Kl?nge" (Churches, Cult & Sounds), a cooperation event between the MHL and the Kulturkirche St.Petri, took place from 5 to 8 October 2023. The project initiators, Prof. Franz Danksagmüller and Dr. Bernd Schwarze, invited church musicians and theologians of both denominations from all over Germany to take a directional look at the future of the church and the music that resounds in it in numerous lectures, workshops and performances as well as a final discussion.

Around 100 participants visited the multifaceted events with great interest, which took place alternately in the Chamber Music Hall of the MHL and the churches of St. Petri and St. Jakobi. Prof. Franz Danksagmüller sums up: "It was an immensely enriching symposium, the feedback very positive. It ranged from 'something like this should have taken place 30 years ago' to 'we have to do this again'. I am thrilled with our students, their musical contributions and their great help in the organisation."

In addition to presentations by the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Regensburg and the Hochschule für Musik Weimar, the MHL was able to present itself in particular with compositions created in the IKN profile (selectable since 2013), which have since also been requested by some participants for their own musical work. Further publications from the IKN profile are planned. With regard to church music studies, Franz Danksagmüller sees the symposium as a clear signal for the endeavour to renew training. "That we church musicians have to become more creative, more authentic again, that has become more widespread in the meantime." This direction was also reinforced by a participant responsible for job advertisements with a statement during the final discussion: "This way church music has a meaning again."

Work is currently underway on the documentation of the symposium. In addition, the next innovative congress will follow immediately next November 2023: the "org_art_lab" in Hamburg, St. Nikolai (6 to 12 November 2023), which will work on new music and new techniques in connection with Hyper-Orgel, present the first results in concerts and designed church services and expect interdisciplinary insights into other worlds of sound and art with the overtone singer and improviser Anna-Maria Hefele and the dancer Kenzo Kusada. The music created there and the projects conceived are to be performed gradually in St. Nikolai next year.

A theological-liturgical-church-musical future workshop
A lot has to happen. Very soon. Our churches: they are valued as houses of culture, as monuments with tourist appeal, as "other places" in the middle of our cities. In some places, church services are still well attended. How much longer? The institutions are crumbling, credibility is waning, and the loss of tradition can hardly be stopped. They still flock to the Christmas Oratorio and the St. Matthew Passion. How much longer? Listening habits have changed, the entire musical culture is in a constant state of flux, and for many the great works are at best only a memory. What sounds are needed today, what narratives, what staging, to bring new magic to the spaces, their atmosphere and their meanings? Is pop music the solution, or is it new experimental works? Do we just need better sermons, or do we need to tell completely different stories? Do we just need to adapt our liturgies or completely reinvent them? The University of Music 中国足球彩票 and the Kultur- und Universit?tskirche St. Petri zu 中国足球彩票 - the "Church at the Zero Point of Religion" - invite you to experience and explore the never thought of, the hardly ever said and the unheard of.

• THU - SUN / 05 - 08 / OCT / 23
  Symposium
  on new directions and innovative concepts with best practice examples from speakers from church music, theology and conservatory.

For church musicians, theologians, as well as for lecturers, students and those interested in studying.

A cooperation between the Kultur- und Universit?tskirche St. Petri zu 中国足球彩票 and the MHL in collaboration with the Kirchenmusikhochschule Regensburg and the Musikhochschule Weimar.

DO / 05 / OKT / 23
19 – 21 Uhr / St. Petri
Er?ffnung

• Er?ffnungsvortrag von Prof. Dr. Thomas Erne: "Daseinsweitung – Wozu wir heute Kirchen brauchen"
• Musik von Sarah Proske: "Realit?tswelten"
  I. Zwischenwelten – Geistige ?ffnung für verborgene Daseinswelten
  II. Augenblick
  III. Imagination – Im Anfang war die Idee
  Merle Gro? Sopran
  Sergio Javier Fernández Alvarado Percussion
  Tadeo Gil Silva Violine
  Benjamin Seeck Violoncello
  Lynn Hartfil Kontrabass
  Vokalensemble aus Studierenden der MHL

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FR / 06 / OKT / 23
09 – 13 Uhr / MHL / Kammermusiksaal
Vortr?ge I

• Prof. Franz Danksagmüller, Prof. Arvid Gast: "Prolog – Produzieren oder Reproduzieren? Von Sweelinck bis zur Kantorenpraxis zur Zeit des 'Aufbruchs der Kl?nge'"
• Prof. Dr. Friedhelm W. Mennekes S.J.: "Die Orgeln für neue Musik – im stetigen Wandel"
• Dominik Susteck: "Musik als offene Frage – Zur Konzeption zeitgen?ssischer Musik im Kirchenraum"
  
  Pause
  
  
• Ilka Sobottke: "Pirat:innen und Sekundenkleber. Neue Codes und Poesie zwischen Insta, gender und fromm"
• Monsignore Dr. Werner Schrüfer Künstlerseelsorger: "Seelsorge und Kultur – Eine Win-Win-Situation"
• Prof. Christian H?ppner: "Kirchenmusik als Chance für Gesellschaft, Kultur und Kirche"

14.30 – 18.30 Uhr / St. Jakobi
Workshops I

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SA / 07 / OKT / 23
09 – 13 Uhr / MHL /  Kammermusiksaal
Vortr?ge II

• Prof. Dr. Bernd Beuscher: "Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll – Ein systematisch-theologisches Orgelkonzert im transmoralischen Register"
• Dr. Uwe Steinmetz: "Das Ritual im Jazz und der Jazz im Ritual"
• KMD Eckhard Manz: "Liturgische R?ume als Klangr?ume für Gegenw?rtiges"
• LKMD Hans-Jürgen Wulff: "Gemeinsam den Wandel gestalten – Kirchenmusik als Chance und Perspektive für Gemeinden"
  
  Pause
  
  
• Prof. Stefan Baier: "Neue Geistliche Musik – Der neue Master 'Neue Geistliche Musik' an der Kirchenmusikhochschule Regensburg"
• Prof. Martin Sturm: "Die Orgel inmitten der Gesellschaft – Perspektiven zu einer zukunftsf?higen Orgel?sthetik und -ausbildung"
• KMD Eckhard Manz: "Liturgische R?ume als Klangr?ume für Gegenw?rtiges"

14.30 – 15.45 Uhr / St. Petri
Einblicke

• Dr. Bernd Schwarze und Team: "Die Petrivision – Ein Gottesdienst, der nicht Gottesdienst hei?t und vielleicht auch keiner ist"

16.30 – 18 Uhr / MHL
Workshops II

• Pamela Hulme: "Orgel, Stimme & Live Looping"
• Prof. Franz Danksagmüller: "Improvisation mit Instrumenten und Live-Elektronik"

20 Uhr / St. Jakobi
Offenes Improvisieren
mit Teilnehmenden des Symposiums

23 Uhr / St. Petri
Petrivision
"geweiht": Musik, Rezitation, Meinungen, Licht und Spiel im Rahmen der Reihe "Raum"

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SO / 08 / OKT / 23
10 – 12 Uhr / St. Jakobi
Best Practice
Beispiele aus der Praxis und Abschlussdiskussion

The MHL started early to break new ground in church music education with the profile ?Improvisation, Composition, New Media? (IKN). The training provides students with tools that enable them to become creatively active themselves. The profile enables the design and organization of interdisciplinary projects with a final public performance on a socially relevant topic or for liturgical use. Project-based subject choices are also designed to prepare students for the stylistically diverse challenges of professional reality.

Since the winter semester of 2022/23, the newly designed Master's program has been in effect with a focus on modularity, stylistic flexibility, and on creative and interdisciplinary work. (see at this link)

But other music academies, institutions and artists are also exploring new directions in education and practice. The symposium is intended to provide an opportunity for an intensive exchange.

During the symposium, new paths and formats will be presented and explored, discussions will be stimulated, impulses will be set, and making and conceiving music together will be encouraged.

Above all, the gap between pop church music and classical church music education is to be bridged and the focus is to be directed towards the content. Based on the models of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the church musician should once again be creatively active, and the churches should once again become places of high-quality, original art and relevant statements.

More information will follow soon.

An initiative of the University of Music 中国足球彩票 and St. Petri zu 中国足球彩票

Churches – Cult – Sounds
Gro?e Petergrube 21
23552 中国足球彩票

Prof. Franz Danksagmüller (MHL)
Mail to Prof. Danksagmüller

Dr. Bernd Schwarze (St. Petri, MHL)
Mail to Dr. Schwarze