Andreas Eschen, former deputy director of the Leo Kestenberg Music School in Tempelhof-Schöneberg, will be awarded the Berlin Music School Prize this year. The Association for the Promotion of Public Berlin Music Schools honors music school teachers for outstanding achievements or successes in their pedagogical work, for innovative teaching concepts, and for special cultural-political commitment. The music school prize will be awarded to Andreas Eschen as part of this year’s Day of Music Schools.
There are several relevant criteria that speak for the selection of Andreas Eschen for the award. For over forty years, Andreas Eschen has been committed to music school politics and has made significant contributions to ensuring the quality of the Berlin district music schools: as a union member, in the music school advisory board (1983 to 1993), and last but not least, from 2008 to 2019 as deputy director of the Leo Kestenberg Music School in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district.
As a piano teacher with a keen interest in improvisation and its teaching, he received a teaching assignment for this subject at the then University of the Arts (now University of the Arts) in 1991. At the same time, as a member of the board of the German section of the EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association), he was able to develop and advance his innovative pedagogical approach through numerous lectures.
As a founding and board member of the International Leo Kestenberg Society, Andreas Eschen is still actively involved in research for his idea of a modern music school, which is equally accessible to all people and whose high-quality music pedagogical work is ensured by the greatest possible artistic and pedagogical freedom and social security.
