Jane is a Beethoven fan. That’s what Lorenz Knauer, chairman of Germany’s Jane Goodall Institute, told him, says pianist Yojo Christen. Accordingly, Christen played Beethoven’s “Appassionata” at an event with the famous behavioral researcher in Munich’s Showpalast in June 2019 and garnished his performance with an improvisation as a homage to Jane Goodall. That an 88-year-old, educated Brit likes Beethoven, of course, comes as no great surprise, and the primate researcher, with her white hair tied back, would also go well with the characteristic “silver lake” that opens up before classical musicians when they enter the (often aged) audience look.
Yojo Christen, born in Altmühltal in 1996 and only 26 years old himself, naturally has nothing against older listeners. But with the new concert series “Classics for Future”, which he now wants to develop with his girlfriend Anna Glaser, he is primarily targeting a young audience. He will organize the first concert himself on Saturday, September 10th, in the Small Golden Hall in Augsburg. On the programme: Liszt’s B minor Sonata, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and the “Appassionata”. Works in which not only the stupendous technique and explosive dynamics of the pianist are able to unfold, but which ideally also know how to sweep the young audience along, according to the motto: Beethoven rocks. And the Jane Goodall Institute should benefit from it too. After all, it’s about the future.
“I already had the idea for the series in 2020, and of course the name is inspired by ‘Fridays for Future’,” says Christen at the meeting in the Munich café on Beethovenplatz. Luring young people into concerts with young artists is one of the basic ideas. “When they go in, they’re excited too,” says Christen. According to the concept, this live experience should be triggered by virtuosos of the U30 age group. In addition to Christians, the young pianists Alexander Maria Wagner (December 3) and Christoph Preiß (February 2023) will play at the following concerts – they are scheduled to take place every two or three months. Like him, you are a former student of the pianist and composer Franz Hummel. The violinist Ronja Sophie Putz is also scheduled to perform. “Everyone thinks it’s a great idea.”
Frustration with the situation artists like him find themselves in also fueled the idea
The youth approach is paired with the claim to “call attention to one of the central issues of our time”, as Christen puts it: climate and species protection. The Jane Goodall Institute Germany is a cooperation partner of the series, will have an information stand at the concert in Augsburg and will receive part of the income.
Frustration about the situation for artists like him also fueled Christen’s idea. With all the reputation he has gained as a talented early starter, idiosyncratic pianist (and composer), his return to the stage has been slow. The organizers are currently relying more on world stars: “It’s very difficult for people who aren’t that well known yet.” He wants to create a podium for them.
“He’s the visionary, I’m the doer,” says Anna Glaser. She knows Christen, who gave concerts when he was seven, from their childhood and from their school days together in Ingolstadt. The two were already dating before they split and got back together during the pandemic. Glaser lives in Augsburg, works in product and project management and has taken on the organizational tasks at “Klassik for Future”. “It’s an economic gamble,” she says. Should the series be well received, however, they want to organize concerts in other places in the medium term, in Munich and outside of Bavaria. “We also want to break new ground in advertising,” explains Glaser. Reach young potential concert goers more via social media, for example.
Christen finished composing his first symphony during the pandemic, and a film team also made recordings of him in Munich’s Herkulessaal, which can be accessed via an online video store and which are to be released on CD and Blu-ray in autumn: Christen plays the h- Minor Sonata and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. Should Beethoven lover Jane Goodall attend a “Classics for Future” concert herself, that would of course be awesome.
Concert on September 10th, Kleiner Goldener Saal, Augsburg. Info below https://www.klassikforfuture.de