The Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation is a not-for-profit independent foundation governed according to civil law. It is based in the Mendelssohn House (where the composer lived in the 1840s) in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Foundation

Originally set up in 2003 as a

fiduciary A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person. One party, for exampl ...

foundation, the Mendelssohn Foundation's legal status was changed in 2012 by the

city authorities, here operating in partnership with the already registered "Mendelssohn House International Mendelssohn Foundation" (''"Mendelssohn-Haus Internationale Mendelssohn Stiftung"''). This was when the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation became a not-for-profit independent foundation, governed according to civil law. The constitution of the restructured foundation was drawn up on 28 November 2011, and the city's financial and legal participation was agreed at a council meeting on 18 July 2012. The Mendelssohn House and the Mendelssohn Museum, together with the museum site at Goldschmidtstraße 12, were brought into the foundation. Acceptance of the new arrangements by the followed on 28 August 2012.Landesdirektion Sachsen, Register number 07/2012

Objectives

According to its constitution, The foundation objectives are focused, in particular, on international research and nurture concerning the artistic and societal inheritance bequeathed by the composer and director of the

Gewandhaus Orchestra The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

(''"Gewandhauskapellmeister"''),

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

(1809–1847). In addition, the foundation is required to encourage musical training and education in a manner consistent with the priorities of the composer who founded in Leipzig Germany's first music conservatory, which today bears his name as the University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig. The foundation is also to administer and operate the Mendelssohn Museum in the Mendelssohn House and the carriage house belonging to it.

Activities

* The foundation supports the Mendelssohn Complete Output project of the

Saxonian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (german: Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig) is an institute which was founded in 1846 under the name ''Royal Saxon Society for the Sciences'' (german: Königlich Sächsische G ...

* The foundation issues publications and organises concerts. * The foundation awards the International Mendelssohn Prize in Leipzig. * The foundation may award scholarships to artists of exceptional talent. * The foundation has rescued and taken responsibility for running the Mendelssohn House acquired in 1993 by a predecessor organisation. * The foundation had, by February 2014, invested €1.5 million in dramatically raising the standard of the displays and exhibits in the Mendelssohn-Museum accommodated in the Mendelssohn House.

Leadership

The first prize winner, in 2007, of the International Mendelssohn Prize in Leipzig was the conductor

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Or ...

, one of Mendelssohn's successors as chief conductor (''"Gewandhauskapellmeister"'') of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Masur held the post for nearly thirty years. Masur has also played a leading part in the work of the foundation and of its predecessor entities: he was the foundation's president. The chairman of the supervisory board is

Burkhard Jung Burkhard Jung (born 7 March 1958 in Siegen) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been the 21st lord mayor (''Oberbürgermeister'') of Leipzig (Saxony) since March 29, 2006. In addition, he has been president of th ...

, the lord mayor of Leipzig.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Foundations based in Germany Felix Mendelssohn Music in Leipzig Non-profit organisations based in Saxony Organizations established in 2003