Klavier Festival Ruhr
zur deutschen Version English language selected Petruschka
The Petrushka project

Written by Tobias Bleek and Richard McNicol

Petrushka – At the fair

The story of Petrushka, the „eternally hapless hero of all fairs“, was immortalised by the 28-year-old Igor Stravinsky in his ballet of the same name, composed in 1910/11. The composer could never have imagined that his musical masterpiece would one day be performed to more than 1,500 people in the midst of a colourful fair in Bochum’s Jahrhunderthalle. As well as the members of the Bochumer Symphoniker and their conductor Steven Sloane, children, young people and adults from different cities in the Ruhr Region were involved in the project and in the performance of the fairground festival on the 27th October 2007. Among the many and varied activities of the education department of the Ruhr Piano Festival and its partners, the Petrushka fair was the highlight. In the run-up to the performance, 130 school children participated in numerous workshops where they engaged with Stravinsky’s masterpiece through music, dance and art.

A short film about the Petruschka project
From conception to performance
The ideas and aims of the Petrushka project and how were realised. 
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Music workshops
Over 50 primary schoolchildren from Bochum invented music for a puppet show version of the Petrushka story. 
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Dance workshops
Primary and secondary schoolchildren from Essen und Mülheim prepared a dance performance to the music of Petrushka and performed it in Bochum’s Jahrhunderthalle. 
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Art workshops
Secondary school pupils from Bochum made large-scale wooden figures for the fair. 
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The fair in the Jahrhunderthalle
Over 1,500 children, teenagers and adults came to the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum on the 27
th October 2007. More...
The project partners
The Petrushka project was made possible through the cooperation of leading cultural institutions in Germany’s Ruhr Region. 
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Gallery
Photographs of the education workshops and the Petrushka-Fair Festival are available 
here
.