»Arts School«
Bamberg's Am Heidelsteig elementary and junior school is situated in the east of the city, in an area known for social problems. Since 2014, the Bamberg Symphony has partnered the school on its way to becoming Bavaria's first »Arts School«. With rehearsal visits, backstage tours and invitations to concerts, the Orchestra is giving a vital boost to the ideal of holistic personal development, and is helping to make music an easily and permanently accessible experience for all grades, as part of the 'living arts syllabus': this means every pupil comes into contact with the Orchestra at least twice a year.
»When a world-class orchestra like the Bamberg Symphony supports the musical work of a school with pupils from 44 countries, it shows the musicians' deep commitment, their determination to cut across boundaries, and their close ties to their home city. The Bamberg Symphony gives the pupils of Am Heidelsteig School access to music and the arts which they'd otherwise have great difficulty in getting. Thanks to this, the arts have become part of the normal school curriculum and the pupils have come to love 'their' Orchestra. It's a model which cries out to be copied elsewhere!«
(Michael Weidenhiller, Under-Secretary, Bavarian State Ministry for Schools and Higher Education, Science and the Arts)
