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The Gerhard Trede Foundation goes back to the German composer Gerhard Trede. It was established in the will of Gerhard and Elsa Trede and approved by the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on September 13, 1999.

The main purpose of the foundation is to promote the arts in the field of music. 

The foundation is administered by Commerzbank AG:
Gerhard Trede-Stiftung c/o Commerzbank AG Stiftungsmanagement, Mr. René Koch, 60261 Frankfurt am Main

The Foundation’s funding comes and from the copyrights revenues of Gerhard Trede’s musical works and from the income from the investment of the Foundation’s capital.

Thanks to the continuing high income of the Trede copyrights, the foundation’s objectives have been appropriately realized.

The Board of Directors
of the Gerhard Trede Foundation

Volker Korella

Member of the Executive Board since 2015

Dr. Andreas Leimbach

Managing Director of SolarKapital GmbH

Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick

President of the Hamburg University
of Music and Drama

Prof. Dr. Hermann Rauhe, former President of the University of Music and Performing Arts Hamburg, and Karl-Ludwig Heuer (✝ 2024) were appointed honorary members of the Executive Board due to their many years of service on the Executive Board.

Supported projects
of the Gerhard Trede Foundation

  • NORDLIED Festival 2023
    Hamburg

    The biennial festival with a focus on art song has been taken place under the patronage of Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter since 2021.

    The events follow the principle of “Lied meets …”, whereby the art song is brought into contact with other genres – theater, pop music, poetry slam, music education and film.

    The interdisciplinary events of “Lied trifft…” took place in the Elbphilharmonie, the resonanzraum and the Thalia Theater (Nachtasyl).

    The meeting point for international and local (Lied) artists offers graduates of the Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMT) a platform where they can perform alongside with international renown artists. In this light, the sponsored alumni of the HfMT have an opportunity to write an entry in the next chapter of their artistic career.

  • Mendelssohn Summer School
    Hamburg University of Music and Drama

    For many years, the University Foundation has been organizing the Mendelssohn Summer School in close cooperation with the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT) with students and teachers from all over the world. This important event has already been sponsored several times by the Gerhard Trede Foundation. Thanks to the high artistic quality and the encounter with international guests, the Mendelssohn Summer School is a great enrichment for the students. Many participants get to know the HfMT through the Summer School and then go on to study at the HfMT.

  • Concert series “Music – People – Medicine”
    at the UKE Hamburg

    The concert series “Music – People – Medicine” has been in existence for over 10 years and was conceived and launched in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hermann Rauhe. In cooperation with the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, concerts are held several times a year for patients, visitors, staff and relatives. The focus is on classical instrumental music, but evenings of jazz, musicals, opera and songs have also been on the program.

  • Gerhard Trede Award
    Award for young composers

    The “Gerhard Trede Prize” was awarded for the first time in 2022. In this way, the board of directors of the foundation fulfills the foundation’s purpose as desired by the founder, namely to have musical pieces by Prof. Gerhard Trede performed in public. The announcement of the composition competition stipulates that young composers will be called upon to rearrange a work by Trede for the Large Ensemble of the Jazz Department of the HfMT or to compose a new work incorporating Trede titles. The award ceremony took place in the Jazz Hall of the Hamburg University of Music and Theater. The nominees were: Alex Demos, Lauri Kadalipp, Mai Linh, Clemens Manachère, Sam Penderbayne, and Agustin Pardo. The winner of the competition was Agustin Prado. He won the 1st Gerhard Trede Award with his new composition The Elbe de la Plata. The next Gerhard Trede Prize will be awarded on November 6th, 2024 in the Jazzhall of the HfMT Hamburg.