Ceremony at the Outer Alster Campus

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International guests and a world premiere at the farewell ceremony for President Prof. Elmar Lampson

On September 30, Elmar Lampson, President of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, was bid farewell at the end of his third term of office at a ceremony hosted by Science Senator Katharina Fegebank. There were words of welcome from Hamburg's General Music Director Prof. Kent Nagano, the Chairman of the University Council Michael Lang, the President of the HfBK Prof. Martin Köttering, the Chairwoman of the Rectors' Conference of German Music Universities Prof. Dr. Susanne Rode Breymann and the university's great patron Prof. Dr. Ernst Langner. Greetings from Prof. Yu Feng, President of the Central Conservatory of Music Beijing, and Prof. Liao Changyong from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music were recorded on video. The guest of honor was Prof. Toshiki Toyama, President of the Nagoya Conservatory of Music in Japan, who came with a delegation including the composer Prof. Akira Kobayashi, whose harp concerto written for the occasion was premiered. Other prominent guests at the ceremony included Ulrich Khuon, Director of the Deutsches Theater Berlin, as well as the Japanese Consul General Kato Kikuto and the Polish Consul General Pawel Jaworski.

Elmar Lampson took office in October 2004 as the successor to Hermann Rauhe. During Lampson's 18 years in office, the university has changed and developed fundamentally. Highlights included development projects such as the spectacular construction of the Jazz Hall and the expansion of the jazz department as a joint project between the Dr. E.A. Langner Foundation and the FHH and the construction of the excellently equipped new rooms for the Theater Academy and the Institute for Culture and Media Management in Barmbek.
His greatest successes also include the establishment of an international network with new university collaborations, particularly in China, Japan, Korea, North and South America and Israel, as well as the two-time funding of the university as part of the "Innovative University" competition organized by the BMBF.

Senator for Science Katharina Fegebank"I would like to thank Professor Lampson most sincerely for his open and trusting cooperation over the past years. His work within the university has focused on art as a unifying element. With wonderful success: in 18 years, Professor Lampson has built the HfMT into a place of diversity, where learning is characterized by openness and curiosity. A place of togetherness and excellent artistic creation, where music connects people across national and professional boundaries. This is thanks to Professor Lampson's many years of networking work and his commitment to the arts universities.
Dear Professor Lampson, you have tirelessly built bridges everywhere - across national borders, between numerous universities and to urban society. You have developed the HfMT in all areas and have always done so with an astute eye for the big picture. You have the rare and outstanding gift of creating harmonies as if by an invisible hand. Your work at the HfMT will resonate for a long time and far beyond Hamburg's borders. Thank you for your creativity in thinking up new paths and for your courage in pursuing them. For the new phase, I wish you precisely the harmonies to which you have so dedicated yourself."

President Prof. Elmar Lampson:
"It would be better if I could write a piece of music as a farewell to express my gratitude for everything I have experienced over the past 18 years at the university, but also in the cultural and political environment of the city of Hamburg and beyond in cooperation with the German and many international music and theater universities.

I would particularly like to thank Senator and Second Mayor Katharina Fegebank for her personal openness and dedication and for the energy with which she has driven the development of the university. I would also like to thank the great patrons and foundations who, together with the FHH, have made it possible for the university to develop significantly in terms of art, science, construction and technology.

It has been a great honor, pleasure and challenge for me to work in this incomparable place and to shape the life of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama together with the faculty, staff and students over this long period of time. I would like to thank everyone very much for this.

Now comes a new beginning, a new time with new ideas and impulses. I feel very fortunate that Jan Philipp Sprick has become my successor. His integrity, courage and energy will do the university good and take it forward.
I sincerely wish the university all the best for the future!"