The artist couple Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen have been awarded the Pablo Casals Award – For A Better World, which is endowed with 10,000 euros. The prize was awarded for the first time by the Kronberg Academy during the Kronberg Festival.
In the spirit of Pablo Casals « ..first and foremost I am a human being, secondly an artist. As a human being, it is my first duty to do good to my fellow human beings, » Kronberg Academy intends to award the prize initiated by Flossbach von Storch AG annually in the future.
The artist couple Martin Helmchen (piano) and Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello) received the prize primarily for their Music Road Rwanda project, which promotes the development of musical life in Rwanda. In Rwanda, there are music lessons in only a few schools and no advanced music education. This is why the musician couple has been involved in Rwanda for over ten years: « As artists who are privileged in a special way, we feel obliged to get involved socially. The universal language and the healing power of music make a decisive contribution to this. » Both want to invest the prize money of 10,000 euros in training and continuing education courses for local music teachers.
