HENRY

The PODIUM Festival in Esslingen is an organisation of young musicians who are known for their pioneering approaches to the digital education of contemporary music. The group has developed an app called “HENRY”, a digital platform and virtual personality which provides access to contemporary music at different levels and promotes feedback between the composers and listeners. Each week, the app features a musical piece, complete with background information, accompanying material and the invitation to become actively – and physically – acquainted with the work. In order to appeal to adolescents and young adults who have not had much contact with contemporary music, the project will offer alternating digital and analogue programmes, e.g. targeted at refugee support groups, schools and youth centres.

Together with patrons of the PODIUM Festival, upper secondary-school pupils in Esslingen intensively participated in “HENRY” for a period of eight weeks and discussed the project in workshops organised through a social media group. The project was also documented online. The app was distributed to local cultural and educational partners free of charge and offered to supra-regional festivals, opera houses and orchestras as a digital supplement to their concert-pedagogical measures.