MDR CULTURE: The corona situation is getting worse and a particularly affected area is once again culture. Also at the University of Music in Dresden there are concerns about the current situation. Mr. Köhler, how is the mood at the university? Are there any doubts among the students about the future viability of their studies?
–
Axel Köhler: (…) There is only one known case where someone dropped out of their studies for corona reasons and another case where someone did not start their studies for corona reasons. So it’s relatively relaxed, when you consider that we have a student population of around 750, this tendency cannot actually be proven here.
–
And you also have a large number of international students. The situation is not that easy, so far away from home and then still in the high incidence area.
–
That’s the case, but we’ve already gained experience over the last year. It’s a strange déjà vu and the only, let’s say, tiny advantage of the current situation is that we know how to deal with it. The fact is that the student body works very well with one another, that we as the rectorate work very closely with the student council, that there are regular jours fixes where we exchange ideas about how we can help each other.
Here the 3G rules are meticulously adhered to. Now we are also lucky that we are a relatively small university and not a technical university with 30,000 students. We have our 800 and we have a lot of private lessons and all students want to study and all teachers want to teach. In this respect, we assume that everyone obeys the rules as much as they can, so that classroom teaching can be maintained.
–
Nevertheless, it is still particularly difficult for you, because studying music is of course something like an activity that is close to the body. Of course, attitudes are then corrected in individual lessons. There is concrete instruction, also with physical contact, which cannot be avoided, not to mention singing lessons. What concepts do you have in your house?
–
The first concept is really: test, test, test. We just had a world premiere yesterday, a really great production that has already been postponed and moved from the small house to our concert hall. We can perform something like this in the university public – unfortunately without an audience.
But the students themselves, because it pursues corrective purposes, get their orchestral license, get their credits as singers, all that. They are all tested and go to work in rehearsals with a mask. Except for the wind instruments and singers, of course. But we really have very, very few cases here. Because if you treat each other carefully and take it seriously, you can also work under these conditions.
–
If you treat each other carefully and take it seriously, you can work under these conditions.
–
–
– .
