Coronavirus: Germany's Music, Arts Scene Desperate for 'Crucial' Help - CircusTalk

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Coronavirus: Germany’s Music, Arts Scene Desperate for ‘Crucial’ Help

Mounting calls for rapid, unbureaucratic federal funding for self-employed musicians and artists have been backed by top music stars. Anne-Sophie Mutter and Christian Thielemann say colleagues are “neck-deep.”

In an open letter on Sunday, international music stars said it was “unimaginable” that quick German state aid had been offered to businesses such as Adidas and dentists while self-employed, trained musicians and artists faced a drastic drop in income over the next eight to 12 months.

Some colleagues were “neck-deep in water,” reported the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, citing violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lisa Batiashvili, opera singers Matthias Goerne and Rene PĂĄpe and conductors Christian Thielemann and Thomas Hengelbrock.

Also a signatory was copyright and culture sector lawyer Miriam Kellerhals, on behalf of further [unnamed] artists in “many cultural sectors,” the paper reported.

Their letter demands that, at the very least, state-subsidized institutions such as theaters, opera houses and concert halls should provide freelance artists with the income they would have otherwise received for events canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic…

Read the Full Article at DW

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