MAY 2020

"Yes, we're going through with it this semester!" With this sentence, the emergency management crisis team turned into a bustling task force of facilitation. It should be a creative semester and not an emergency semester. At an artistic university where learning and working are based on proximity and encounters. Now located in the digital world.

An immense amount of creativity and willingness to act was unleashed and so we were able to open our summer semester 2020 online on April 20.

How are we doing now?

Everyone is getting involved and almost all formats need to be rethought. Some subjects are coming more into focus. Exercise training is in high demand because it structures the day, provides stability and creates a balance. Many students are using the time to focus more intensively on theoretical subjects, which can be taught very well digitally. Individual lessons take place via Skype & co. Répétiteurs record accompanying parts and make them available for practicing. In school music, we venture into making music together with ZOOM, documenting via iMovie and reflecting with Mentimeter. Dramaturgy students visualized their wishes for the coming semester on a jointly designed online mind map that reads like a work of art in its own right. The Institute of Cultural and Media Management started directly with the "Digital Media Theme Days" under the motto "Digital & Agile" and was able to make consistently positive experiences in a Zoom seminar with around 60 participants.

With a great deal of inventiveness, new concepts were created that relate to the situation and develop their own power: Under the heading "Elementary music-making as musical bridge-building in extraordinary situations", EMP (Elementary Music Pedagogy) is developing various projects for senior citizens, small children, young people and those particularly hard hit by the crisis. The dramaturgy department is developing a movement performance at a distance in public space based on Albert Camus' "The Plague" and Peter Handke's "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other". Drama students read poems for a "lyrical medicine chest" (à la Erich Kästner), which - available online - can provide comfort and healing for "illnesses" such as loneliness, anxiety and others. As the big band is currently unable to rehearse together, the focus here is on the historical repertoire: the students play to historically relevant recordings in the correct phrasing, record themselves and are then mixed together so that, in addition to historical studies, they also practise important "studio musician skills".

In order to facilitate cohesion and care in addition to transfer, the head of the Department of Music Therapy writes a "Friday letter" to her students every week with information, but also suggestions and thoughts. Other departments keep themselves entertained with class conferences.

Despite all the creativity, there is of course a need! There is the trumpet player who can only use his own car for practicing. The lack of equal opportunities is revealed by the different availability of technical equipment. Transmission deficits make it difficult to work on timbres and make ensemble playing almost impossible. There is a lack of shared atmosphere for improvising in a group.

There is a lack of this and that and all attempts are crutches to bridge the gap, but remarkable crutches that can work because we have a basis for togetherness and because there is a perspective. From this week onwards, we are taking another step forward and the first face-to-face lessons can take place.

We would like to thank everyone involved! Until we are finally allowed to work together again in healthy proximity, we will continue to explore the creative play and work spaces of physically distanced cooperation.

Since April 28, individual students have finally been allowed to practice again as part of a cautious trial program. Initially, priority was given to groups playing non-portable and particularly loud instruments.
The risk of infection is kept low through a sophisticated room-reservation system with staggered usage times and a hygiene plan tailored to our circumstances.

Students from the A-Team—who normally handle coat check, admission, programs, and stage setups during the busy semester—are now responsible for cleaning the rooms and pianos. Their tools of the trade are now face masks, gloves, and disinfectant, and they’re glad to be back and in contact with others, at least in this way.

Linda Bichlmeier (6th semester, school music) really enjoyed getting to know a new person again and having the opportunity to have a long and in-depth face-to-face conversation (albeit while wearing a mask). “This allowed me—at least for a short time—to push aside the strange feeling that came over me as we sat in the empty foyer. I miss college life, my friends, and the musical exchanges...”

Nora Schittkowski (4th semester, School Music) finds it both wonderful and strange to be back at the university after months away. Instead of practicing, she’s disinfecting pianos, but she’s grateful for two things: “First, of course, to still have a job, even though the actual work involved isn’t possible right now, and second, to be part of the team that makes it possible to keep the college open and allow us to practice. I really hope that, step by step, everything will return to normal and that we’ll all be able to meet again soon at the college to make music together, practice, and, of course, take coffee breaks.”

"Stay healthy!" Has become a popular and beautiful greeting in recent weeks. "Stay healthy by playing!" is the motto of the Arbeitsstelle Musik und Gesundheit, which was developed by the Institute for Music Therapy in cooperation with the University Medical Center Eppendorf (UKE).

For a little more variety in a busy everyday life, the team at the center has put together a series of exercises for use at home. The exercises are uncomplicated and can be done anywhere and have already been gratefully received by HfMT employees. You are also welcome to use these suggestions for movement, balance and strength.

With this in mind: stay healthy and hopeful - we miss you enormously!

Your HfMT