QuerKlang – Experimental Composition at School

“QuerKlang” – experimental composition at school, is a project that fills a hole in conventional musical tuition. As opposed to simply approaching music passively, pupils compose and perform their own compositions. The concept of “QuerKlang” means that pupils do not need any previous musical experience.

Accompanied and instructed by professional composers and music students from the Universität der Künste, experimental pieces evolve, which – according to the aesthetic decisions each class has made – partly feature no traditional instruments at all. Watering cans, bikes, newspaper, megaphones, no object is safe from the young audio researchers. Shaped by the various musical backgrounds of the pupils, compositions come to life, which surprise in their complexity and are performed with earnestness and zeal.

This is the fourth edition of the project “QuerKlang” and the premieres of such compositions in the context of MaerzMusik have become a real highlight of the festival.

As part of this year’s edition of MaerzMusik we will experience premieres of group-compositions by and with the composers Robin Hayward, Hector Moro, Leah Muir and Ana Maria Rodriguez, the pupils and teachers of the Evangelischen Schule Berlin Mitte, the Neumark-Grundschule, the Johann-Gottfried-Herder-Gymnasium, the Evangelischen Schule Berlin-Zentrum as well as students from the UdK Berlin.