Work
A selection of our engagements
Scholarship competition «Forest Concert»
The “Forest Concert” project gave a handful of students who had caught the attention in the 2024 scholarship competition for young music students the opportunity to perform in front of a curated audience on a small stage set deep in a forest. The concert (76 min.) was recorded and parts of it were released online. Students received a video of their own performance for personal use, e.g., as feedback for their performance or for future applications. You can find a sneak preview (approx. 7 min.) of the concert here.
Wissenschaftsolympiade in Philosophie
Practicing independent, critical thinking and intellectual acuity in the discourse promotes conscientious judgment and resistance to manipulation by the regressive contemporary trends. The Foundation is repeatedly supporting the Philosophy Olympics for young people under age 18. The final of the Philosophy Olympiad of Switzerland and Liechtenstein took place at the University of Basel in March.
Musikstipendium für junge Musiker
Die Barbara und Roberto Conza Stiftung hat die Form der finanziellen Unterstützung für junge Musikstudierende (im Alter von 16 bis 28 Jahren) mit einem Lernprojekt, die in der Schweiz leben und studieren, erweitert. Die Stiftung kommt den Bedürfnissen einer neuen Generation von Studierenden entgegen. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auf die Anforderungen der Bühne gelegt, was bedeutet, dass Musik eine kreative Kunst ist, die das Publikum berühren und inspirieren soll. Die Studierenden erhielten eine Bühne, auf der sie ihre Qualitäten und ihre musikalische Persönlichkeit dem Komitee, das über die Stipendien entschied, differenziert präsentieren konnten. Dies gab ihnen auch die Möglichkeit, in einem besonders geschützten Raum an ihrer Bühnenpräsenz zu arbeiten und ihre Bühnenerfahrung zu erweitern.
Ein Video dieses Konzerts finden Sie hier: Vimeo
The body is the first instrument for developing intelligence – Conza Foundation supports circus project for children
When children attend circus school in their leisure time, they train awareness and concentration. They practise their conception of action, goal-oriented skills, strength control and psychomotor functions. Learning a stunt or trick requires discipline and deep dive. Motor action is the primary form of action and the basic system of cognition and understanding. It is at the beginning of a child’s cognitive development and conceptualization. Thinking is acting internalized. When a child finally masters a stunt after practising it for a long time, this is a great experience of significance for the child. This year, as in previous years, the Barbara and Roberto Conza Foundation supported a remarkable educational circus project for children.
Animals help children
Children bloom with animals. Especially with horses, not only because they carry the child calmly through nature on guided tours in all weathers, but also because of their sensual presence and strength, their warmth, their soft fur and their genuine down-to-earth nature, which gives the child feelings of security. The legendary friendliness of horses towards children when handling and caring for them in the stable also enables the children to feel strong and competent. For children with physical or mental handicaps and communication problems, the horse is a highly valued co-therapist.
This year, we once again supported an institution that offers therapeutic riding for children.
Scholarships for young musicians
Music is not only all-pervasive and topical, it also preserves the culture of other times, spaces, values and sensibilities. Those who take on this task include the many students in the music departments of our universities. Many of them need financial support during their studies. The Foundation is therefore once again awarding a large number of scholarships to young musicians this year.
Children and young people discover artistic skills
The cultural center Centro Cultural Tlaloc is a meeting place with cultural and artistic activities for children and young people in Esteli, a small town north of the capital Managua/Nicaragua. One of the goals of the center is to give young people and children the opportunity to discover and develop their artistic qualities. Among the various socio-cultural activities, musical encouragement and education is a focal point. If the young people are qualified, they have the opportunity to be prepared to study music in Managua.
The foundation supports the Centro Cultural Tlaloc association with finances.
A beacon of music that touches – scholarship holders give an impressive concert
The Barbara and Roberto Conza Foundation addresses the question of the conditions under which the joy of learning, the ability to learn and the power of innovation can be ignited and sustainably fostered in young people. We advocate greater pedagogical attention to the conditions under which quality learning that leads to outstanding creative and innovative achievements can take place.
We target young talents with innovative projects. Innovation is considered to be both the achievement of a next level in personal learning development and a new approach to a question or a new way of looking at a problem. The decisive factors are the self-efficacy of the project, the optimal utilization of one’s own talent, the entrepreneurial spirit, the contribution to a subject area or to the good of society and mankind.
The concert helped the students to define clear coordinates for their further professional development. They also faced the challenge of working together across cultural boundaries in a key phase of their identity formation.
The Conza Foundation distinguishes between “achievement” and “success” when supporting students. “Achievement” is an individual category: students are assessed according to whether they have exhausted their personal potential in their performance development. “Success” means that performance is set in relation to the performance of other learners – which may have been achieved under completely different conditions. At the heart of our support is the goal that all learners can make the most of their talent and compare their performance. What counts is enthusiasm for learning, the motivation to progress, to achieve something that was not there before and to develop as a person, to understand a topic or skill in greater depth. “Deeper, more beautiful, better, clearer, enriching for oneself and others.” These categories can be applied equally to artistic creation and interpretation of the world as to scientific research and development.
A video of the concert is found here: Vimeo
Scholarships for young musicians
Master of Arts in Music Performance (trombone), Bachelor of Arts in Classical Music (organ and piano), Master of Arts in Music Performance (opera), Master of Arts in Specialized Music Performance – Soloist (violin), Master of Arts in Music Composition (Contemporary Jazz specialization).
Building Walls – Breaking Walls
An intercultural dry-stone wall project with young adults from Switzerland, Ireland/Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine. These meet during one week at one of the locations and learn under professional guidance to renovate natural stone dry-stone walls, and at the same time they overcome walls and borders between cultures through discussions and workshops. This includes in particular also the cultural and linguistic borders in Switzerland.