<span class="vcard">Wendelin Bitzan</span>
Wendelin Bitzan

An Own Harp for Cosima

My 14-year-old daughter Cosima passionately loves to play the harp. She started on a celtic harp five years ago and, after successfully participating in the Jugend musiziert competition, recently switched to the concert pedal harp, which enabled her to join the children’s opera orchestra of the Berliner Staatsoper. She also composes, plays the piano, and sings in a girls choir.

Cosima currently practises on a rental harp that we were able to hire from an acquaintance, but it will only be available until September. Most harp dealers and private suppliers wouldn’t offer concert instruments for loan, though, so we now seek to get funding for Cosima’s first own harp to foster her further development and education. That’s why I set up a crowdfunding. We would be delighted if you considered supporting this promising young artist by a donation of your choice!

» Support us in acquiring Cosima’s own harp

New Board Elected at TKV Berlin

Last Saturday, this year’s general assembly of the professional body Tonkünstlerverband Berlin took place, in which a new board has been elected. I am looking forward to supporting a promising and dynamic team with my work as a managing director. The board now consists of Kaan Bulak as the new chairman, Jens Domeyer as deputy chairman, Anne Katharina Uerlichs as secretary, Christian Höffling als treasurer, and Anna Barbara Kastelewicz and Richard Nordemalm as members-at-large. At the same time, Alf Schulze and Agnes Stein von Kamienski have left the board—many thanks for your valuable formative work in the association during the past years!

Flowing with Ravel

Cordial invitation to a fluid lecture recital, taking place as part of the semester topic »Musikmetropole Paris« of the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. On Tuesday, 6 May, 7:30 pm, in the university’s chamber hall, I will be speaking about three of the most fascinating piano works of Maurice Ravel. I couldn’t come up with a more liquid title than »Im Fluss. Ravels Wassermusiken für Klavier: Jeux d’eau, Une barque sur l’océan, Ondine«. Performers at the piano will be Sukyeon Kim, Honoka Buyo, and Dingyuan Chang. Let’s see where the waves will take us—I’d be delighted to have your company!

Unraveling Ravel

Looking forward to teaching an analysis class on the piano music of Maurice Ravel during the forthcoming summer semester at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. In addition, I will be speaking in a lecture concert on Ravel’s water-inspired compositions on Tuesday, 6 May, 7:30 pm, in the school’s chamber music hall, where I will share my thoughts on Jeux d’eau, Une barque sur l’océan, and Ondine. This is going to be an immense pleasure, and the more so if you could manage to come along! #ravel150 #imfluss

On Admission Exams in Music Theory

The board of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (GMTH) has published a statement on the MULEM-EX study of May 2024, a survey examining the current music teacher shortage in Germany by interviewing applicants and students of school music education. The results of the study suggest that admission exams in music theory and aural skills may have a discouraging effect; this is understood in such a way that music-theoretical content allegedly has a limited significance for assessing the general eligibility of applicants. The GMTH statement, in which I was involved, disputes these findings.

The authors of the study recommend that music theory admission exams in school music programmes be suspended in order to counteract the decreasing numbers of students. This is a controversial issue. In general, I would be open to such a measure, provided that its success is thoroughly evaluated. In order to prevent a decline of standards in music theory and aural skills, the corresponding topics would, if no longer examined in an admission test, need to be integrated in the curriculum. For example, an elementary music theory course could be introduced in the first year of study, and the acquisition of elementary competencies would be subject of the first module examination.