Daniel Barenboim Finances Tuition for Music School in Berlin

The pilot project aims to integrate music seamlessly into the elementary school curriculum

The Berlin Senate and the Daniel Barenboim Foundation have come together to launch a new program which will boost music education in schools. The initiative will be implemented at the 48th elementary school in Berlin's Pankow district, on the Conrad-Blenkle-Straße.

Barenboim envisions that each student at the school will have a 15-minute individual music lesson integrated into their normal school day, three times per week. In this way, music will be treated as a core component of the curriculum, much like literacy and math. The children will begin with the piano, but some may change to other instruments after an initial period of study.

The Barenboim Foundation will fund and oversee the project for its first two years, at which point the Senate will take over to finance music education at the school in perpetuity.

"I am deeply convinced that musical education is essential both for the individual development of people and for our society," Barenboim said. "The government subsidies for musical institutions in Germany are great, of course, but music is badly neglected in today's school education. It is just as important as mathematics or history."

"In our music kindergarten we show that early childhood musical education means that a large number of children will continue to occupy themselves with music in their lives," Barenboim added.

"Musical education is simply indispensable for social interaction," said City Councilor Dr. Torsten Kühne. "That is why the district office has supported the joint project 'The Musical School' of the Daniel Barenboim Foundation and the 48th Pankow School from the start... the district office will continue to support the project with its possibilities. "