Hours of sunshine in the Beethoven-Haus

Since late summer, a colourful mix of singing, handicrafts and museum exploration has been on the programme every Friday afternoon at the Beethoven-Haus under the title "Borderless... Beethoven". A colourful mixture of singing, handicrafts and museum exploration was on the programme for refugee children from Ukraine every Friday afternoon - with the help of the museum education team and with the support of choir director Iryna Dusheiko, who fled from Kiev, and Lena Tondorf, a Ukrainian who has been living in Germany for 10 years. The project ended on 9 December with a final presentation at a concert in the Chamber Music Hall featuring children's choir singing. The project was carried out within the framework of the funding programme "Sunshine Hours" of the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States, which supports cultural initiatives that want to bring cheerful hours to refugee children from Ukraine.

"We experienced touching 'sunshine hours' together," says Barbara Pikullik, museum educator at the Beethoven-Haus. "The children have grown together as a group and we have clearly felt how much they have enjoyed their time together. Singing also connects them, gives them comfort and joy, and helps them to learn the language.

Proudly, the children now presented their concert to friends and family. All the artists appeared in Ukrainian folklore costumes in colourfully embroidered white blouses. The programme included German and Ukrainian songs, including Beethoven's "Marmotte", which the children sang fervently in Ukrainian and German. The programme began with the old Ukrainian folk song Ой у лузі червона калина похилилася , (Oh, on the meadow the red snowball bent) which has meanwhile become the second Ukrainian "national anthem". A round of traditional, but also modern songs ("Stefania") followed, and Christmas hymns like "Schedrick" and "Silent Night" were not to be missed. The programme was supported by the musicians Ekaterina Koshuba (piano) and Maksym Taram (violin), who had fled from Kiev, and who not only accompanied the singing of the children's choir, but also touched the audience with solo Ukrainian works.

The audience thanked them with never-ending applause, and at the end there was a cosy finale with children's punch and biscuits in the Christmas-decorated courtyard of the museum.