The ensemble “colourage” links artistic expression of multicultural music to new forms of communicating musical meaning to audiences. Colourage is comprised of classical trained members of a professional orchestra, musicians from a popular music academy, and the oriental music academy, it is taking up this challenge. They perform music that unites musical elements from Western Europe and the Middle-East that sound familiar and new at the same time. But not only is the musical material such an encounter but also the musical practices that emerge from joint processes. Composing new pieces as a joint endeavour by the group, playing and improvising in new ways opens up new perspectives not only for the musicians but also for the audience.

The orchestra in Ludiwgshafen was the first one to establish a professional “agent of diversity”, the first one to be hired by a classical orchestra. What does that mean for new ways of transmitting the music to youth audiences? While many educational programs set of from a middle class background where classical music is given, the multicultural composition of students but also the new characteristics in cultural life which is marked by multiculturality and diversity in a substantial way are left aside.

European societies are generally marked by cultural heterogeneity. As this has been the case for a long period of time it holds true even more so today when migration of any kind is omnipresent. Manyfold musical practices can therefore be encountered everywhere. What does that mean for music making and music production? The German ensemble colourage will be presented as an example of new ways in musical practices and in transmitting this music to youth audiences. The symposium unites three different perspectives.

Germany has since the 19th century been a country marked by migration to and migration from the country. However, the character has changed since the middle of the 20th century. While at first migration included mostly people with German cultural background, since the late 1950’s migration from the Mediterranean countries had prevailed. Accordingly, it made sense to think of music education in terms of a limited number of “cultures” encountering (e.g. (Adamek, 1989; Merkt, 1985). However, since the large migration numbers 2015 and since the war in Ukraine, the migration background has become more divers (Bundesregierung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, undated). Hence, the emphasis in music education both in theory and in practice is shifting from the encounter with a specific culture to the process of “culturalizing” itself (Blanchard, 2019, 2021). Talking about different musics has been the predominant form of dealing with multiculturality although the lacking of musical practices and music itself has been stressed (Riedel, 2012). The music itself has gained less attention. Cultural diversity is often regarded as a matter on concepts of didactics (cf. Schippers & Campbell, 2012), not of musics itself. Here the proposal for a symposium comes in.