The Beethoven@250 Campaign

Help produce multimedia & live events in celebration of Ludwig's 250th!

Beethoven's upcoming 250th birthday in 2020 is an unprecedented opportunity to inspire a whole new generation of music lovers for the 21st century. It is our goal to produce multimedia projects, events, and educational opportunities to spread Beethoven's inspiring music and message of humanism, hope and harmony.

Celebrating Beethoven@250 - Year 2020

The International Beethoven Project (IBP) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2008 with the mission to promote Beethoven’s legacy of creativity, compassion and courage, and to use Beethoven’s fame, story and music to generate renewed interest in classical music and its joys. Beethoven believed in the power of human brotherhood across all nations and cultures, in a more just and peaceful world, and in the power of music and the arts to help bring harmony to humanity. This vision and these ideals have guided IBP’s many experiments and endeavors over the past decade, and have led us to a clear roadmap for an impactful celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in 2020.

Beethoven’s 250th birthday, December 16th, 2020, serves as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to highlight the uplifting message of a superstar of music history to the world, and through that, to open wide the doors of classical music culture to help generate new and younger audiences.

To do so, we have homed in on four major areas of focus to maximize IBP’s impact and reach:

Media productions
Event production and guidance
Education and guidance
Creative Collaborations and Global Partnerships

Our aim is to raise 1 Million Dollars in this 18-month campaign, an ambitious goal in line with our strategy to contribute significantly to the global celebrations of Ludwig van Beethoven and his important message of beauty and human brotherhood in these challenging times.

OVERVIEW:

MEDIA PRODUCTIONS - recordings, films, websites, apps, etc., are opportunities to establish a long-lasting legacy and global reach in service of its mission to highlight Beethoven and the value of classical music. In 2020, IBP will focus on the release and production of the following media projects:

Bach48: a complete album recording, music film, documentary and dedicated website and mobile app built around J.S. Bach’s monumental Well-Tempered Clavier, known in the music world as the “Old Testament of music” and a work of great influence on Beethoven. This album will be released in multiple parts beginning February 2020 in partnership with Orchid Records in London.

Beethoven32: a complete album recording, music performance film, documentary film and dedicated website and mobile app around Ludwig van Beethoven’s monumental 32 Piano Sonatas, known in the music world as the “New Testament of music” and a compendium of major importance to the development of music in the 19th and 20th centuries. This album will be released in multiple parts beginning November 2020.

(RE)imagine (BE)ethoven: a project to inspire a new body of creative work directly inspired by Beethoven’s music and life, applied to new music, visual art, dance and theatrical expressions, creative filmmaking, and writing. This project aims to engage contemporary artists in all disciplines, but especially music of all genres, to consider Beethoven’s music and life and make use of the large body of work left by the master musician, incorporating some of its elements in a language adapted to contemporary forms of expression.

EVENT PRODUCTIONS -

The 250th Beethoven Birthday Bash: an exciting multi-disciplinary one-to-three days celebration of Beethoven in multiple cities around the world in December 2020, with music, film, theatre, dance, art, and cake. Organized in festival style, the Beethoven Birthday Bash will explore Beethoven’s legacy through his music and work inspired by his life and output. IBP’s ability to produce these events in different cities depends on each location’s ability to support the project and local partnerships. If interested in exploring this idea in your city, please contact ibp@internationalbeethovenproject.com.

Do-it-yourself Beethoven Birthday Bash: for fun-loving admirers of Beethoven, simply-curious people, or for serious organizations, the “Do-it-yourself Beethoven Birthday Bash” will provide guidelines on how to celebrate Beethoven’s big birthday at home, in school, at the local cafe, or in the concert hall, creating a world-wide Beethoven Birthday Bash network connected through social media and the Internet.

EDUCATION -

The lvb250.com website: a central resource on all things Beethoven, including a listing of all Beethoven-birthday related events around the world, and listings of Beethoven-related content organized by category (music, films, art, books, articles, derivative works, etc.).

Educational Resources: for teachers and parents around the world to help introduce Beethoven and classical music to their students and children

CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS AND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS - With hundreds of Beethoven-related events and projects big and small being planned for 2020, IBP intends to highlight the best of them and in some instances, directly collaborate or partner with like-minded organizations and artists to amplify their work and our mission of promoting Beethoven’s legacy and influence of contemporary work worldwide.

-The Beethoven@250 Campaign & Fund-

This endeavor allows IBP to carry on and help bring Beethoven to the next generations. In order to succeed in these projects, fundraising starts now. It is our goal to reach one million dollars over the course of this campaign so that we can leave a lasting mark on this generation's love of music and inspire the next one.

Thank you for your support!