All together now!

The “Coole Streicher”:
Salut Salon and their orchestra for children and young people

Salut Salon have set new standards in music teaching with their very own orchestra for children and young people, the Coole Streicher. The trailblazing idea was, in fact, quite simple: why shouldn’t all Salut Salon’s students be able to play together in one, big orchestra?!

No sooner said, than done: since 1993, the orchestra’s membership has grown to some 20 children and young people aged from 5 to 20, and the Coole Streicher’s concert performances have long since become the epitome of successful new talent building in the creative and musical spheres. The secret of success: the stylistic variety of the pieces, from baroque, romantic-classical, to jazz and even film music. The pieces are arranged in such a way that every musician in the orchestra has their very own part, which is tailored to the particular player’s standard. As of 2007, the clever Coole Streicher arrangements have been on sale in sheet music shops, and are published by the renowned Breitkopf & Härtel.

Word of the unique youth orchestra founded by Angelika Bachmann and Iris Siegfried reached the German Music Council, who in 2003 invited the Coole Streicher to Berlin, to the great “Children’s Festival” at Schloss Bellevue. In 2004, the Coole Streicher even made it to the opening gala concert at the Frankfurt Music Fair and were presented by German Federal President Johannes Rau himself with the “Inventio 2004”, 1st prize for the most innovational musical project in Germany.

Since this success in 2004, the Coole Streicher have gone on to win several first prizes, including in the annual LTM competition in Hamburg. Following the award in 2008, the orchestra were honoured at a concert for prizewinners held at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg (Januar 2009) with the special award given by the trust Hubertus-Wald-Stiftung.

At the most recent LTM competition (October 2009) the orchestra won 1st. prize for their musical prowess and commitment.

The Coole Streicher also make a significant contribution to Salut Salon’s benefit concert. In cooperation with the German aid organization Kindernothilfe, the quartet provides ongoing support to Escuela Popular de Artes, a music school in Achupallas, a poverty-stricken neighbourhood in the Chilean town of Viña del Mar. Thanks to this support, young Chilean musicians and the Coole Streicher have had the opportunity of visiting each other in Deutschland and Chile and of giving joint concerts, for instance, in the Berliner Philharmonic Hall with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. In November 2009,  the Coole Streicher will also appear in November 2009 at the Salut Salon benefit concert for the Escuela Popular de Artes at the Thalia Theater and, in December 2009, they will be giving another large concert at Hamburg’s Friedrich-Ebert-Halle in aid of the Chilean children of Achupallas.

Another concert tour in Chile (December 2009) with several joint performances will further reinforce the already close friendship between the two young people’s orchestras.

In November 2009,  the Coole Streicher performed at the Salut Salon benefit concerts for the Escuela Popular de Artes at the Thalia Theater and, in December 2009, at the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle in Hamburg.