Mentoring @ Classical:NEXT 2025

It was Tuesday, April 1 – but anything but April Fools’! – when Philipp asked me if I could and wanted to take over the mentoring sessions at Classical:NEXT. Our calendar of events in May was so packed that we had to be in Berlin and Vienna at the same time. My first reaction? A little cautious and internally torn. Mainly because I had never done anything like this before and never saw myself as a “mentor”. During the preparations, the slightly queasy feeling turned into anticipation and excitement at being able to represent Soundvest at a conference of this magnitude and to be able to support and help musicians.

So from May 12 to 15, I spent three and a half days at the world's largest industry network meeting for classical and art music. The first time ever. And I admit: it was overwhelming. I was torn between appointments and meetings that I had already arranged in advance. You constantly meet interesting people everywhere that you could talk to for hours, but you also want to get a bit of the program and what's on offer. It was exciting, inspiring, and exhausting. And it felt like the real work only started afterwards …

Both musicians and artist managers came to our mentoring sessions, and on both days, a mixed group of very different personalities connected through music. I like the feeling of being able to help others, and it's great to see that the participants also learn from each other by sharing their personal experiences. I also learned a lot, both professionally and about myself. 

In addition to the profound keynote speech by Dr. Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, the musically colourful Opening Night in the Kühlhaus and the film showcase "Die Wandlung" by the ensemble Wild Strings, my personal highlights of the program were Vincent Sneed's rousing lecture on the fact that the history of classical music is NOT purely European, a refreshing, funny workshop by Dr. Ciaran Frame on musical participation and Sandra Janke's session on "The courage to not fit in" on the final boat cruise.

It's such a colorful, diverse, open, predominantly progressive, and very tolerant scene. It's a pleasure to work in this environment and community, and to be a part of it with Soundvest.

A contribution by Anja, Marketing- and Eventmanagerin

Pictures 1, 2, 4 & 5: Christoph Mangler
Pictures 3 & 6: Anja Schulze