He is the German festival pope: After Schleswig Holstein and Mecklenburg, Matthias von Hülsen also founded a youth festival in Poland 10 years ago. A conversation about the importance of music in people’s lives.
Matthias von Hülsen is one of the most creative classical music managers: the pediatrician from Hamburg was involved in the founding of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, he founded the music festival in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – and now directs the chamber music festival in Kreisau, Poland. A place where young musicians can spend two weeks rehearsing intensively – and with open doors – on works that are particularly close to their hearts. A touch of Marlborough in Poland.
Im BackstageClassical-Podcast von Hülsen talks about his path, about the change in festivals, about the good that music brings to people – and especially about private commitment, which is the basis of a functioning democracy (podcast for all players or Spotify below).
Matthias von Hülsen on democracy
“We all know that politics is nothing more than the reasonably good administration of the general interest. It is nothing more than that. And the terrible thing is that our community is largely just plodding along irresponsibly. This irresponsibility creeps in like a disease. It must be fought. Every single person must fight against it. That is democracy! Our democracy is an effort, and it will only be preserved if all people understand that they are challenged, each in their own way. Democracy is ultimately nothing more than the community of us individuals in the we.”
Opening concert of the 10th Music Festival in Kreisau (Photo: BC)
Matthias von Hülsen on opportunities in music kindergartens
»As a pediatrician, I was a great amateur photographer and had a secret agreement with my patients: When they were happy and funny, I would pull out a camera and capture their faces – for years. I had life stories of children who had been wonderfully supported – because they played football or had some other great subject. And of children who had not. You could tell from their faces whether the child had been supported or not. At the time, I gave a lecture to Daniel Barenboim called No chance. I simply showed people this comparison – and it had an incredible impact. It became immediately clear: If you don’t get something started, it’s something that these small careers will always be missing. And then others took up these ideas, and after Berlin, a music kindergarten was also established in Hamburg.”
Transparency note: Axel Brüggemann gave a lecture in Kreisau, to which he was invited
