The freedom to dream: Kathrin Lemke – Dreams play a not inconsiderable role in the personal: Video

Dreams play a not inconsiderable role in the personal and professional development of young musicians. To realize musical desires and aspirations promotes the ability to achieve the necessary maturity for a sometimes deprived artistic life.

Kathrin Lemke (1971-2016) spent her entire life working on the shaping of her personal sound and her own compositional handwriting. She was aware that sometimes small contributions help to make a dreamed-up or already started project a reality, which then represents an important building block in the development as a musical personality. The “Kathrin Prize” should contribute to this: in the form of a fully financed work or workshop phase at the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, it should keep young musicians free for a week for artistic, educational or staged projects. It can also be an impulse to develop something new artistically or to realize existing ideas.

The “Kathrin Prize” – Kathrin Lemke Scholarship for Young Jazz Improvisers. 

From the estate of Kathrin Lemke donated Kathrin’s mother, Irene Lemke-Stein, 25,000 euros to promote young jazz musicians. She donated this amount to the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt as a special donation in order to set up the “Kathrin Prize” – Kathrin Lemke Scholarship for Young Jazz Improvisors. The “Kathrin Prize” is to be awarded every two years starting from the year 2019 by the family of the musician, the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt and the magazine JAZZTHETIK.

Scholarship, workshop phase, prizewinner concert.

The award is granted in the form of a scholarship. This consists of a week-long workshop phase at the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, as the conclusion of which the official presentation of the prize and a prize-winner concert take place. The winners themselves can determine the time of the award ceremony as well as the workshop phase. He must, however, lie before the announcement of the subsequent winners.

The workshop phase itself can be used, for example, to carry out a proposed project or as rehearsal time before a CD production or tour, for the development of cross-genre programs, the preparation of a study trip abroad, as a compositional period or the like. During this week, all costs directly related to the workshop phase for the award winners, such as travel, accommodation, daily subsistence, sample fees, fees for guest musicians, room and instrument rentals, etc., will be determined by the content of the week taken over by the donors of the prize. At the end of the week, the winners will give a public graduation or workshop concert in the vaulted cellar of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, where the award ceremony for the “Kathrin Prize” will take place.

The winners will be announced on September 27, Kathrin Lemke’s birthday.

Young Jazz Improvisers

Recipients of the scholarship should be musicians who are at the beginning of a career as a professional jazz musician, either just completed their studies or just published their first independent musical project and have the intent to pursue the path of an improvising musician. There is no age restriction. The candidates can also come from abroad.

Candidates for the scholarship are selected by an eight-member board of trustees. Each member of the jury has the opportunity to name a musician. An unsolicited application is not possible. All nominated musicians will then be asked to submit a project idea with a description and a plan to design their stay in Darmstadt. This includes an exact date proposal for the period of the work phase. The submission is in writing. The Board of Trustees then decides on the basis of the written exposé and selects one of the nominees as prizewinner.