The Schöck-Familien-Stiftung supports integrative music/theatre projects for schoolchildren and Syrian refugees in Kirchheimbolanden with the aim of promoting integration, language and culture.
Agrippina, a tragedy from the Baroque period by Daniel Casper von Lohenstein, was presented first, in a new version and production by the well-known director Hansgünther Heyme, who took over the artistic direction of the project. The play was performed with great success with schoolchildren and refugees in Kirchheimbolanden and at five other locations, including a TV broadcast.
The young refugees were looked after as part of the projects, given a cultural insight and social connection as well as German lessons several times a week, which were also supported beyond the performance time.
The Syrian participants in the theater project learned a lot about our country, our history and our culture over a period of around one and a half years. They have learned German intensively and passed exams that give them access to training places or schools and later also universities. Germans and Syrians have established friendly relations with each other.
The Schöck Family Foundation then supported the direct continuation. The second project was aimed at high school students and underage refugees in Kirchheimbolanden. Many Syrian young people from the first theater project attend this secondary school, so that with the new project an important continuity of the educational offer was guaranteed.
The aim was to arouse young people’s enthusiasm for language and music, to show cultural diversity and to promote cultural participation. The starting point of the second project was the opera “The Homecoming of Odysseus to the Fatherland” by Claudio Monteverdi. The artistic direction was taken over by the young director Aileen Schneider, who developed a music theater performance for professional stage actors and amateurs from Baroque music drama motifs. The project saw itself as an educational measure supplementing the work of the school with high educational, cultural and, in particular, integrative aspirations. The premiere of the integrative music theater performance “Odysseus” was a great success! A grandiose performance was offered in the packed town hall of Kirchheimbolanden. The high school students and the Syrian girls outdid themselves and deeply touched the souls of all viewers. The cooperation with the first-class professional singers was a great – also educational – gain for everyone.
In 2021, the project “Music education workshops at school” was funded, which includes the realisation of monthly workshops in connection with the piano and chamber music series of the city of Kirchheimbolanden, which present young artists in the field of classical music. They play their concert program to the students, explain it and talk about their career, their training and their job. All music teachers at the secondary school in Kirchheimbolanden take part in the music support project with their classes. In this time of the pandemic, which has exacerbated an economic recession and an education crisis, the project for cultural education and integration wants to help counteract the disadvantages of children and young people and strengthen their social participation. Due to the pandemic, the project is currently being carried out digitally with the advantage that even more schools can participate in the “digital classroom”.
Lydia Thorn Wickert (thornconcept) is responsible for project conception and responsibility, selection of project partners and communication.
Project sponsor: Gesellschaft für Kultur und Soziales Donnersberg e.V.
Funding year: since 2016
Project No.: 64-16si