The Music Academy of Villecroze was founded by Anne Gruner Schlumberger in 1981. An enthusiastic music lover, she wished to develop patronage to encourage musical practice and creation among young artists. Inaugurated in October 1989, the Academy then became a “beehive buzzing with music.” Since Anne Gruner Schlumberger’s death in 1993, her granddaughter, Dr Anne Postel-Vinay, has been pursuing her grandmother’s work of musical patronage.
Starting with one masterclass in 1981, the Music Academy of Villecroze now organises eight to ten masterclasses a year. Many disciplines have been taught there: strings, wind instruments, piano, singing, harpsichord, marimba, string quartet and other combinations, privileging the practice of chamber music. In recent years, masterclasses are also open to French chanson, accordion and improvisation.
These masterclasses are intended for the finest young professional musicians wishing to perfect their art with world-famous teachers. Participants are selected and invited free of charge by the Music Academy of Villecroze to work with these masters on repertoires ranging from Baroque to Contemporary.
Since 1993, other activities have been developed, such as colloquia on musicology, study stays, composition classes, recording, etc.
Moreover, in 2009, Anne Postel-Vinay, paediatrician, launched a partnership with the French Ministry of National Education, to promote choral singing in schools. She is convinced that playing music, like practising sport, develops learning capacity, concentration and mutual respect. The Music Academy of Villecroze commissions operas to be played by children. It also creates educational tools to help teachers in working with their students (recordings, teaching aids, information sheets, etc.). The project is supported by such partners as the Radio France National Orchestra and Children’s Chorus and other foundations. Thus, more than a dozen works have been created here.
The 350,000 primary schoolteachers can download some of them free of charge from the French Ministry of National Education site: Musique Prim.
For secondary schools, a convention signed in 2015 with the National Federation of School Choirs should open access to its 4,000 members to existing and future works created in the framework of this partnership.
To complete this programme and allow teachers to adopt these works and the educational material thus created, the Music Academy of Villecroze offers several training sessions a year. They bring together 20 to 100 teachers around composer(s), a chorus master and possibly a stage director, choreographer, pianist/accompanist....
Although Villecroze itself remains a reference, it had to expand and other venues are now available to host projects.