Europe as Guest in WDR 3 Klassik Forum
Seven Saturdays with European voices from seven countries in WDR 3 Klassik Forum.
Europa zu Gast (Europe as Guest) is a special series from WDR 3 Klassik Forum, a programme broadcast from 9:00-12:00 CEST on a daily basis (except on Sundays) consisting only of music, curated by the presenter.
“The idea behind Europa zu Gast is to share European musical life in a different and enriching way”, says Susanne Ockelmann, Editor at WDR 3. “We do have colleagues in other cultural channels like BBC Radio 3, NPO Klassiek, France Musique, P2 Danish Radio… who speak German. Why not ask them to represent their countries, to present and showcase their national musical lives and give our listeners insights we wouldn’t get otherwise.”
With the support of the EBU, Susanne Ockelmann and her team at WDR 3 succeeded in gathering a group of guests from all over the continent for the project’s first edition in 2022: Valentina Bensi (RSI), Tom service (BBC), Irina Vasilescu (Radio România), Benjamin François (Radio France), Per Erik Veng (Danish Radio), Ivana Neimarevic (RTS Serbia) and Hein van Eekert (NPO).
This summer again, every Saturday from 24 June to 5 August, listen to Europa zu Gast, from 9:00-12:00 CEST, featuring the following presenters:
“Public Service Broadcasting is under pressure all over Europe. With this project, we showcase the treasures we have to offer. We support each other and make audible the diverse manners we serve and enrich society with, in an unexpected way”, says Susanne Ockelmann.
“Since all our guests are German speaking, they of course know Germany quite well – but from an outside angle. This perspective too is very enriching – we all learned quite a lot about our own country as well!
There is also the exchange part: we are all colleagues. Working fields might differ a bit but we have the same profession: providing our audiences with classical music in public service channels. There is a lot to share, from discussions about technical equipment, programming, how we reach out to new audiences, musical life, rising stars and ensembles, etc., so every visit was a cornucopia of inspiration in many ways.”
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"Welcoming the seven radio presenters from all over Europe on air at WDR3 was a wonderful experience. Their choice of music and background stories touched our hearts and gave us new insights into Europe’s diverse musical landscape. Thanks to colleagues from Europe, the Klassik Forum has become a European cross-cultural platform – a symbol of how much our passion for music unites us all and how closely Europe’s musical traditions are linked. All our European guests furthermore presented their programmes in an excellent German, which meant a lot to us. We’re grateful for this strong partnership with the EBU and the other radio stations. For WDR 3, “Hosting Europe at the Klassik Forum” was a highlight of the year, and we’re delighted to rerun the initiative this year with the backing of the EBU." Andrea Schafarczyk, WDR Head of Programmes for NRW, Learning and Culture |
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"We’ve always been amazed at how much wonderful music there is still to discover in Europe – even for experienced classical music curators. This time the discoveries included fascinating composers from smaller European countries, such as Konstantin Brabic (Serbia), Henrïette Bosmans (Netherlands) and Josefine Opsahl (Denmark). In the run-up to the project, we were slightly nervous about whether our listeners would warm to our guests’ always pleasant but not always perfect German. This fear proved to be completely unfounded. The initiative was extremely popular, and even months later listeners have written in asking for more of the same! Well, the new season is ready... We’d like to thank the EBU for their amazing support." Matthias Kremin, Head of Programmes at WDR 3 and WDR 5 |
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"It has been my greatest professional challenge to date - to present a three-hour show in a foreign language to an audience used to a very high level of presentation and musical selection. At the same time, it was a deeply satisfying process because I was able to present so many wonderful pieces of music from Serbia that are completely unknown outside our borders. Likewise, my understanding and admiration for other European musical traditions has expanded greatly thanks to this project and I'm very grateful for that. There are hidden gems all over the world, we just need to find them, and I hope that projects like this will serve as a map to those buried treasures." Ivana Neimarević, Radio Belgrade 3, RTS Serbia |
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"To be zu Gast in Köln with WDR was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in broadcasting. The invitation was already wonderful: the project is such a visionary and generous expression of European collaboration, and so powerful for what it says about the continued relevance and renewal of public service broadcasting. And then to be in that studio was magical, with the Cathedral so close you feel you can touch it, and all of the activity of the city right there next to you: it’s surely the most beautiful and inspiring radio studio I’ve ever worked in!" Tom Service, BBC Radio 3 |
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