The Consortium
Musethica Germany brings eleven years of active experience with the Musethica method to the project and has previously presented more than 750 concerts in around 200 social institutions in Germany. It has developed a strong network in Germany with partners such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Philharmonie Essen, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the Musikhochschule Lübeck – and with over 200 social institutions such as the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the German Red Cross Hospitals Berlin or the Justizvollzugsanstalt für Frauen (correctional facility for women).
The Berlin-based association, which houses Musethica’s International and Artistic Coordination Department, is the lead partner and will oversee the project, being also in charge of its administration.
Musethica e.V.
mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
The mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as one of the globally top-ranked institutions of its kind looks back on a long tradition. Since its establishment in 1817, mdw has developed into one of the world's largest and most well-known universities for music, theatre and film, and it has received international recognition for the technical brilliance and the stylistic mastery it affords its students. mdw provides space for discovery and experience, reflection and interpretation, individuality and passion. In addition to artistic education and practice, mdw has a strong research element focusing on current academic and scientific advances in numerous fields.
The mdw is actively running Erasmus+ mobility programmes and is successfully involved in numerous EU and Erasmus projects, including the function as the leading coordinator of the large-scale Creative Europe project ECMA PRO.
Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC)
The Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC) is a European cultural and educational network based in Belgium with around 300 member institutions for Higher Music Education (HME) in 57 countries. Although AEC focuses on music, many of its members also work in dance and drama.
AEC is the leading voice for HME in Europe and beyond, a powerful advocate for its member institutions. AEC sees professionally focused arts education as a quest for excellence in three areas: artistic practice; learning and teaching; research and innovation.
AEC maintains partnerships with relevant international cultural and arts education organisations and networks (e.g., Culture Action Europe, ELIA, EMC, PEARLE, EUA). Against this background, and helped both by its location in Brussels and the many events organised all over Europe, AEC is ideally positioned to communicate, disseminate and exploit project results at European level across all academic, practice and policy areas.
The first Musethica concert took place on November 19th, 2012, at the special education school "Rincón de Goya" in Zaragoza, Spain. From that moment, we realised that something very special was happening. The musicians and the audience showed us that we had discovered a different pathway in the training of young musicians. The concert was followed by many others: in hospitals, care homes, refugees and homeless shelters, schools, mental health centres, social enterprises, etc. What we had at first believed to be a unique event happened over and over again. There was no limit to how, and by whom, classical music – well performed – could be received.
Our idea was very simple. Musethica is a project that educates excellent young musicians in musical performance, offering them the opportunity to perform many concerts on a regular basis, sharing their music with people who have difficulty accessing the venues where concerts are traditionally offered. Musethica not only makes classical music more widely available and offers opportunities to perform and experience it – it also aims to foster excellence in young musicians by connecting them with a wide variety of audiences.
After 12 years of Musethica Spain, we have performed around 850 concerts, in collaboration with more than 200 social centers and reaching over 44000 people. Nearly 300 musicians, including young students and experienced teachers, have participated in the program. Our work, which began in Zaragoza, expanded to Barcelona in 2022, and we plan to extend our activities to Madrid in 2025.
Asociación Musethica
Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya
The Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, founded in 2001, is the only official public institution in Catalonia that offers the Higher Degree in Music, within the higher artistic education and its insertion in the European Higher Education Area ( EHEA). Currently, it has more than 900 students enrolled in the bachelor’s degree, master’s degrees, graduate studies, continuous training and extension courses. During the school year, many activities take place at the ESMUC, such as concerts, conferences and master classes open to both the ESMUC community and the external public. During June and July, summer courses are offered, aimed at a wider audience. The school is also committed to the advanced training of young people between the ages of 8 and 17 with high musical abilities through its ESMUC Junior program.
ESMUC is located in an artistic environment along with the Barcelona Auditorium, the Museum of Music and the National Theatre. Being part of the ESMUC means to grow up in a flexible environment, where all the specialties and musical styles are included. The mission of ESMUC is to prepare students so that they can meet professional challenges at an international level and ensure their incorporation into the professional world. To achieve all these objectives, the ESMUC puts the artistic quality and the social commitment on the same level. ESMUC has a strong international dimension. The student population comes from 25 different countries, and the school has been involved in EU programmes on a continuous basis since its inception in 2001.
Musethica Sweden is a non-profit association founded in 2016 in Stockholm with the mission of bringing the Musethica education model to Sweden. Maria Winiarski, now the organisation’s Artistic Director, initiated Musethica Sweden following her inspiring experiences with Musethica’s early projects in Spain.
Since its founding, Musethica Sweden has organised 204 concerts over 20 project weeks, collaborating with 108 different social institutions, as well as numerous established festivals and concert halls. Past partners include the Gotland Chamber Music Festival, the Royal College of Music, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Karolinska Institutet, and Kulturhuset i Ytterjärna.
Since 2023, Musethica Sweden has focused its efforts in the Östergötland region through the three-year project “Musethica Sessions in Östergötland”, funded by the Signatur Foundation Sweden.
Musethica Sweden receives co-financing from the Swedish Arts Council.
Musethica Sverige
Sinfonia Varsovia has been an ambassador of Polish musical culture since its inception. For over 40 years, the Orchestra has been a regular guest on foreign and domestic stages.
The ensemble continues the tradition of Jerzy Maksymiuk’s Polish Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1972, from which it emerged as a result of its enlargement. The impulse to expand the ensemble was provided in 1984 by the arrival of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who soon took over as the first guest conductor. “Working with no other orchestra gave me as much satisfaction as my work, as soloist and conductor, with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra” – Menuhin said in interviews.
Over the years, Sinfonia Varsovia has played more than 4,000 concerts, performing in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Emmanuel Krivine, Witold Lutosławski, Lorin Maazel, Jerzy Maksymiuk, and Krzysztof Penderecki (who in 1997 became music director, and in June 2003 artistic director of the ensemble), and alongside soloists as Piotr Anderszewski, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer, Nikolai Lugansky, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires, and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Sinfonia Varsovia has made more than 300 records, including for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Sony, and Warner. The recorded repertoire includes works from the 18th century to the present day. A special place in the Orchestra’s concert program is occupied by the works of Polish composers; it has premiered numerous works by composers such as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Paweł Mykietyn, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
Sinfonia Varsovia
A.V. Nezhdanova Odesa National Academy of Music
In the south of Ukraine on the coast of the Black Sea is the city of Odesa, its historic center was recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, that is the home city for the A.V. Nezhdanova Odesa National Academy of Music (A.V. Nezhdanova ONMA). The Academy was founded in 1913 and is the first music higher educational institution in Ukraine. Among the Academy's world-famous graduates are Emil Gilels and David Oistrakh. A.V. Nezhdanova ONMA is the home for about 700 students and 230 members of academic staff. Among the staff of the academy are Academicians, Professors, Doctor of Sciences and Arts, National and Honored Artists of Ukraine.
The Academy's 15 Departments train musicians in the following specialties “Musical Art” (piano, organ, chamber ensemble, concertmaster, academic singing, orchestral instruments, conducting, folk instruments, choral and opera conducting, composition, musicology) and “Cultural Studies”. The Academy offers programs in all educational levels starting from preparatory department to bachelor's, master's, creative and scientific postgraduate programs for the degree of Doctor of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.
The A.V. Nezhdanova ONMA focuses on preserving and enriching historical traditions of classical music and contributing to the advance of national Ukrainian and world music culture. Academy is a member of the Association of European Conservatories, ELIA - European League of Institutes of Arts, implements large-scale international educational and creative projects, and participates in the Erasmus+ programs.
Zeist Music Days is an international two-week chamber music festival taking place in Zeist (The Netherlands), that’s being organized by Stichting Zeister Muziekdagen every year in August. It’s an inspiring course full of masterclasses and concerts by internationally renowned musicians. The festival has become a major international event that has received rave reactions from the press and enthusiastic responses from the audience. It is a meeting place for professionals, students, and the public. Since 2009, Zeist Music Days festival has been under the inspiring artistic leadership of Alexander Pavlovsky, first violinist of the Jerusalem Quartet.
The festival offers a series of concerts by world-famous string quartets and soloists, and cross-over concerts at the Moravian Church in the historic surroundings of Zeist Castle. Simultaneously an extensive young talent development program takes place, with daily masterclasses given by renowned musicians, who also perform at the festival concerts. The masterclass program includes a concert tour for the masterclass participants to Utrecht, Odijk and Amerongen. The masterclasses take place at Kontakt der Kontinenten, a conference hotel in the beautiful wooded scenery of Soesterberg, close to Zeist and the city of Utrecht.
Zeist Music Days
Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo
The Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE) is a school from P.Porto and hosts undergraduate and graduate teaching and research covering a broad spectrum of areas related to Music, Theatre and Dance. ESMAE’s assets include the largest and most dynamic music department in Portugal, bachelors and masters programs in Arts and Technology of Sound, and an Acoustic Lab.
The school is dedicated to training highly skilled professionals in the arts, fostering critical and reflective individuals capable of driving social change. Its key goals include advancing research, promoting artistic experimentation, providing services to the community, and supporting cultural diffusion. The institute is committed to cultivating new cultural habits and developing more engaged and demanding audiences.
In the music department, students participate in group activities such as orchestras, chamber music, and opera productions. The institute fosters partnerships to provide students with high-quality performance opportunities, both within and outside of ESMAE, helping them build professional portfolios. Internationalization is a priority, with ESMAE collaborating with prominent networks in performing arts, higher education, and research, such as the European Association of Conservatoires and the European League of Institutions for the Arts. These partnerships help align the institute’s programs with international standards in artistic research.
ESMAE’s mission is supported by its dedicated spaces, including the Teatro Helena Sá e Costa and the Café-Concerto Francisco Beja, which provide venues for artistic practice and cultural promotion. Additionally, the PORTIC Porto Innovation Center fosters research, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship, offering vital support for research units like CESEM. Through its education, research, and cultural initiatives, ESMAE continues to contribute to the development of the arts both locally and internationally.