The International Beethoven Project is an all-encompassing arts and education non-profit. This includes an important media production aspect with a strong focus on film and audio projects.
Ever since the very founding of the organization in 2008, film and audio has been at the center of IBP’s actions. This began with the film and documentary production by celebrated filmmaker Mike Cahill (Boxers and Ballerinas, Another Earth, I Origins, Bliss), who directed the short documentary about the world premiere performance and recording of a newly discovered Beethoven piano trio. IBP also produced the critically-acclaimed album of this Beethoven work for Cedille Records in 2010.
Then beginning in 2011, we worked with multiple filmmakers to showcase their music-inspired short films at the Beethoven Festival, and we occasionally served as producers or co-producers of these short films which were successfully shown to the public in Chicago and online. One such film was the award-winning short feature by Rachel Monosov, entitled Melodica, which included Beethoven in the score, as performed by George Lepauw.
Beginning in 2015, IBP turned its focus to long-form music films and documentaries, to go along with its album productions. The first of this new series was the multi-part Bach48: Voyage Into the Well-Tempered Clavier, co-directed by Mariano Nante and Martin Mirabel, and which was first shown in 2020 after several years of production in Europe and South America, and representing nearly 6 hours of film and audio!
Then in 2020, IBP produced the music film and album, “The Diabelli Variations”, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 1770. The film was made in Bonn, Germany, where Beethoven was born, and directed by Martin Mirabel.
In 2022, the next major – or even mega – production project centers on a music performance film, and multi-episode documentary film on the massive set that are the 32 Piano Sonatas by Beethoven. Along with a performance by George Lepauw of these works, a three episode documentary series is in development, which will tell the story of Beethoven and the Piano. For now, most details are being kept private, but the public will be soon see a teaser for the project in early 2023. The release of the films will begin from 2024 and through 2027, the bicentenary year of Beethoven’s death.
Other short films will be made during the course of the next four years as well, which we will share with our public beginning in late 2023.
You can visit our official YouTube channel to see what is publicly available: https://www.youtube.com/@InternationalBeethovenProject