Siemens Arts Program

Music, Visual Arts and Cultural Education

In the visual arts, we initiate and realize projects around contemporary art. We seek subjects and artistic positions that address challenges in society today and explore emerging future issues.

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Classical music has featured prominently in our work since the program's inception. At the same time, we are also committed to supporting productions that feature contemporary forms of musical expression.

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We enable individuals in our own company and beyond to be enriched by participation in the creative process. The program gives interested employees an insight into different art forms, thus fostering cultural and intercultural dialog.

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The Arts Program Media Collection is a one-stop place to explore all of our videos, podcasts, interviews and press releases.

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News A treat for the senses - this was offered by the first Siemens lunch concert in Berlin. The outstanding ARD music prize winner Kristīne Balanas (violin) and the Neue Philharmonie Berlin (conductor: Andreas Schulz) thrilled the audience in Siemensstadt with a breathtaking performance that was literally absorbed by the audience. A subsequent lunch offered employees and musicians the opportunity for mutual exchange.

ARD music prize winner Kristīne Balanas (violin) and Neue Philharmonie Berlin delivered a first-class lunch concert. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

Conductor Andreas Schulz and the Neue Philharmonie Berlin provided the perfect accompaniment for the soloist. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto - what a joy. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

Schulz demanded top performance from his musicians for Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

The listeners honored the entire concert with long lasting applause. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

MBM Cedrik Neike (r.) and Stephan Frucht (l.), Artistic Director of Siemens Arts Program, thanked Kristīne Balanas personally. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

The prize winner [Kristīne Balanas (violin)] convinced away from the stage with openness and sympathy. Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

Sound experience of a special kind

The violinist Kristīne Balanas opened the lunch concert together with the Neue Philharmonie Berlin under the direction of Andreas Schulz. The Latvian soloist is one of the fastest-growing talents on the international music scene and has undoubtedly demonstrated her skill and professionalism.

With a remarkable ease she took the audience on a journey through Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. The audience honoured her excellent performance with minutes of applause.

In the second part of the concert, the Neue Philharmonie once again showed its class and presented excerpts from Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Conductor Andreas Schulz demanded top performance from his talented young musicians, which was again rewarded with sustained cheers. As a thank you for this appreciation, the orchestra, founded in 2017, rounded off the concert with an encore.

Networking with aspiring artists

After the concert, employees and musicians were given the opportunity to exchange ideas with each other and gain insights into the other's working world in an informal atmosphere. Soloist Kristīne Balanas also took plenty of time after her performance to let this unconventional lunch break fade away. She spoke in German, English, Latvian and Russian - obviously the sympathetic prizewinner is also a language genius. In order to keep this unique concert in special memory, she took photos with interested employees. Siemens can be proud to support young talents like her through the International ARD Music Competition.

3D sound for the classical music of tomorrow

Siemens Arts Program publishes cello works by Tchaikovsky and Gulda in 3D sound technology In conjunction with the Orchestra Academy of the Bavarian State Orchestra and Jakob Spahn, solo cellist at the State Orchestra, the Siemens Arts Program has recorded works by Peter Tchaikovsky and Friedrich Gulda, producing them in several “immersive sound formats”. In intensive cooperation with the Siemens Arts Program, its artistic director Stephan Frucht and the Immersive Audio Network IAN, a completely new sound experience has been born which unites the traditional cello repertoire with a technically innovative audio method.

Press release

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A production of Siemens Arts Program and Orchestra Academy of Bayerisches Staatsorchester

All three spatial dimensions are represented in the immersive 3D sound. The listeners can now experience the entire sound spectrum in three dimensions - as if they were in the middle of the orchestra.

The “Cello Concertos” album in 3D sound quality has been published on the hänssler Classic label as a Blu-ray and CD by 11 May. The sound recordings were taken at the group headquarters of Siemens AG and in the Bruno-Walter hall of the Bavarian State Opera. The 3D immersive production was also presented at the Siemens Headquarters in Munich on 28 April as part of the “Long Night of Music” event.

https://www.muenchner.de/musiknacht/2018/location-detailansicht/siemens-zentrale/

The following works have been recorded on the new CD and Blu-ray:

Friedrich Gulda: concert for violoncello and wind ensemble
Peter Tchaikovsky: rococo variations for violoncello and wind quartet (arrangement: David Stromberg)

Experience the musicians of the orchestra Academy of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester as a virtual avatar orchestra

To go one step further, the 3D audio recordings were combined with an augmented reality application. A virtual avatar orchestra plays Friedrich Gulda’s concert in 3D audio sound. Viewers can choose their viewing and listening positions themselves, while using a touchpad to select the individual orchestra parts.

Live concert vs. digital. Jakob Spahn in real live on stage and ...

... as avatar in our small booth at the Citizen Festival of German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the park of Schloss Bellevue in Berlin. Thanks to our AR application we were able to show a complete orchestra.

Projects

The freedom of the arts and sciences is one of the cornerstones of democratic societies. As an innovative company committed to progress and innovation, we consider it our natural duty to protect and nurture this freedom.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Frucht, Senior Vice President Culture and Sponsoring

BERLIN - ARD music prize winner Kristīne Balanas (violin) and the Neue Philharmonie Berlin (conductor: Andreas Schulz) gave a first-class Lunch Concert in the Mosaikhalle in Siemensstadt (December 2018). Photographer: Stefan Höderath.

BERLIN - German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had invited to his Citizens Festival in the park of Schloss Bellevue in Berlin on 7 and 8 September 2018, and we presented our 3D Sound project with Jakob Spahn and the Orchestra Academy to the people of Berlin. Thanks to our AR application we were able to show a complete orchestra in our small booth.

PARIS - Sarah Shine, a 24-year-old soprano, successfully beat twelve competitors and won the second Siemens Opera Contest France. She received the prize from Nicolas Petrovic, CEO Siemens France, at the impressive Opéra Garnier in Paris (July 2018). Photographer: Gil Lefauconnier

NEW YORK - ARD Music Competition finalists Sarah Christian (violin) and Fabian Müller (piano) are featured at Carnegie Hall in New York.

PEKING – ARTIST TALK with Katharina Sieverding, Andreas Mühe and Chinese Artists (from left: Wang Chuan, Miao Xiaochun, Stephan Frucht, Wang Qingsong, Andreas Mühe, Katharina Sieverding, Zhou Xujun) at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing. The discussion took place before the grand opening of “Language of Photography – And Duesseldorf School” on September 15 (September 2017)

SPEAK-UP – “If you had one word to describe what Siemens means to you and what you stand for in your private and professional environments, what would it be?” This was the questions Siemens leaders were presented with. Their individual associations were crafted into a an art installation by the artist Rupprecht Matthies at the Siemens HQ Munich (September 2017). Photographer: Chris Tille

Mikhail Timoshenko, a 24-year-old baritone, received the award for the first Siemens Opera Contest France at the world-famous Palais Garnier Paris. (May 2017).

DIALOGUE WITH THE PAST AND THE FUTURE (THOMAS STRUTH) - At the initiative of the Siemens Arts Program a vibrant dialogue between the company Siemens and the artist Thomas Struth has evolved in this project. Struth visited selected Siemens locations in Berlin, Erlangen, Forchheim and Alpharetta / USA. There, he created five of his own works, which he combined with selected archive images in a multi-layered art installation (Coordinates – a curated Siemens history). For this work, Thomas Struth had sighted hundreds of archive pictures from Siemens history. The dialogue between the past and the present forms new connections and creates space for creativity and innovation. (June 2016)

SCHWESTERNGRUPPE (GEORG BASELITZ) - a sculpture of more than three meters in height created by Georg Baselitz is located right at the center of the atrium of the new Siemens Headquarters. Georg Baselitz says of his work: "What you see is memory on a monumental scale: in this case, my sister and her friends walking arm-in-arm across the village square. The tradition of the Three Graces, from Ancient Greece via Botticelli to the present day, is one of the themes of this work. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a group of figures with interlinked arms in the history of sculpture." The art in the new Siemens atrium creates an open passageway between downtown Munich and the city's own art district. (June 2016)

The winner! Speechless – shocked – happy.

The young soprano Sarah Shine wins the second Siemens Opera Contest France at the Opéra national de Paris.

The up-and-coming talent was born in 1993 in Ireland, completed her studies at the Irish Royal Academy of Music in 2015 and has been studying at the Academy of Opéra Paris since 2017. At the Siemens Opera Contest, she beat 12 competitors in front of the expert jury, consisting of Jean-Yves Kaced (Opéra national de Paris), Matthias Schulz, (Berlin State Opera), Dr. Clemens Trautmann (Deutsche Grammophon), Eva-Maria Wieser (Salzburg Festival) and Prof. Dr. Stephan Frucht (Siemens Arts Program).

Culture for colleagues

Lunch Concert: On August 24 the first Siemens Lunch Concert took place at Siemens Headquarters in Munich. As Siemens now partners with the ARD International Music Competition, the Siemens Arts Program invited the last year’s prize winner Dominik Wagner (Double Bass) and Maciej Skarbek (Piano) to perform at the lunchtime concert (August 2017).

"I am in seventh heaven"

The first winner of the Siemens Opera Contest France was chosen at the Palais Garnier in Paris.

Mikhail Timoshenko, a 24-year-old baritone, impressed the expert jury consisting of Jean-Yves Kaced, Development Director of the Paris Opera, Matthias Schulz, Director of the Staatsoper Berlin, Dr. Clemens Trautmann, CEO of Deutsche Grammophon and Prof. Stephan Frucht, Artistic Director of the Siemens Arts Program.

From Ankara to New York

İlkin Alpay is at the beginning of a very special journey. Her ambition is to become a world-class singer. Therefore, she is taking part in a program initiated by the State Opera and Siemens Turkey.

See the portrait of a young soprano.

Mission The Siemens Arts Program provides a creative platform for company projects in the arts and culture. Our focus is on the visual arts, music and cultural education.

A lab of ideas for creativity and change

Arts and culture are a vital driving force for exploring identity, creativity and self-reflection. The Siemens Arts Program builds bridges between disciplines, enabling the company to discover new ways of thinking through new experiences. As a creative department within Siemens AG, we see our role as that of mediator between the worlds of art and business. In an open and impartial way, we engage with future challenges from an artistic and cultural perspective so that we can actively shape transformation and change in line with our corporate values.

The Siemens Arts Program does this by creating innovative projects with prominent individuals and institutions from the arts and culture scene. The aim is to encourage collaboration - both personal and thematic, involving creative actors, artistic excellence, and innovative institutions - with our company. The opportunity to participate in the creative process is a key criterion for project selection and management in the Siemens Arts Program. Our aim here is to unleash a powerful inspirational force. Our projects also have a broad relevance and serve as a model within the company.

History In 1987, Siemens AG launched the “Siemens Kulturprogramm” (Siemens Cultural Program) with the aim of developing a specific cultural program for the company. Starting from internal cultural activities, it developed into a well-known and versatile international program for the promotion of contemporary art and culture in the early 1990s. This company-owned cultural institution implemented initiatives on its own initiative in addition to traditional sponsoring. In 2015, the Siemens Arts Program was relaunched under the artistic direction of Prof. Dr. Stephan Frucht.

The Team

Prof. Dr. Stephan Frucht

Artistic Director Siemens Arts Program

Senior Vice President Culture and Sponsoring

Anke Bobel
Project Management

Andrea Clarén
Project Management

Martina Heindler
Project Management

Katrin Jahn
Trainee

Julia Ripke
Working Student

Rebeca Williams
Organization & Projects

Press Contact:
Konstanze Somborn
Yashar Azad

The Siemens Arts Program has a delivery role and does not consider applications for funding from third parties. Engagement with arts and culture is expressed through its own projects and interdisciplinary partnerships. Starting a corporate collection in the conventional sense is not a stated aim of the Siemens Arts Program.

Siemens AG
Siemens Arts Program
Charlottenstr. 57
10117 Berlin
Germany

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Siemens Arts Program

Three pillars of the Siemens Arts Program

Visual Arts

Music

Cultural Education

When the conference hall becomes a concert hall