Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie

This is where the song scene of tomorrow meets! At the heart of the Liedakademie are the master classes with Artistic Director Thomas Hampson. Concert performances in Berlin and Heidelberg and professional coaching round off the year-round support program for young singers and pianists.

What began in 2011 as a highly condensed course offering as part of the Heidelberger Frühling Musikfestival has developed into a year-round support program for young singers and pianists from all over the world. The master classes with the Artistic Director of the Academy Thomas Hampson will take place as part of the total of four work phases of the Liedakademie in Berlin and Heidelberg, some of which will be held publicly in front of an audience and via livestream. In addition, the young artists can be experienced in performances, some with specially curated programs, in Berlin's Pierre Boulez Hall and at the Liedfestival in Heidelberg.

A wide variety of coaching, workshop and discussion formats with different lecturers provide inspiring professional impulses and help to reflect on one's own artistic work. Get-Togethers and free attendance at concerts of the Heidelberger Frühling Lied Festival round out the year-round support program. They enable the scholarship holders to establish lasting contacts and become part of the dense network of the Liedzentrum.

Innovative projects have developed out of the Liedakademie in recent years, such as the staged Lied.Lab DIA_LOG and the short film project Lied me! In addition, many former scholarship holders such as Nadine Sierra, Benjamin Appl and Elsa Dreisig have gone on to successful and impressive careers.

Information on how to apply for the upcoming year of the Liedakademie 2024/25 will be announced here in spring 2024.

The new scholarship holders of the Liedakademie started with the first module in mid-October 2023. One of the highlights was the public master class with artistic director Thomas Hampson, in which a total of 12 young singers and pianists presented themselves to the Heidelberg audience for the first time. Musicality, technique, the historical context of the songs, and finding one's own expressiveness were all addressed here. The artists received great applause for their performance.

The second module took place in January. From January 22 to 28, the young scholarship holders were guests in the Schubert Week curated by Artistic Director Thomas Hampson at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. In two public workshops and the final workshop concert, they devoted themselves to the great Lied composer Franz Schubert in direct juxtaposition with Hugo Wolf, who is no less important for the Lied genre.