Über den Verein

The Association for the Promotion of Classical Music e.V. was founded in 2018. The association's overarching concern is to develop initiatives to create greater attention and visibility for classical music. Classical music should be anchored emotionally and effectively in people's lives across different generations and demographics and its positive value should be highlighted as part of our culture. In addition to the OPUS KLASSIK, further measures are being planned to recognize special commitment in the field of classical music.

The members of the association reflect the spectrum of the German classical music industry: Concert Director Dr. Rudolf Goette GmbH, MünchenMusik GmbH & Co. KG, Dagmar Sikorski (Sikorski Music Publishers), GVL (Society for the Exploitation of Ancillary Copyrights mbH), Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft mbH, and Warner Music Group Germany Holding GmbH.

In the first year, the board was made up of Burkhard Glashoff, concert director Dr. Rudolf Goette, and Dr. Clemens Trautmann, Deutsche Grammophon. Dr. Clemens Trautmann has now taken over as chairman of the board and Nick Hellenbroich from MünchenMusik has joined the board since 2022.

TONALi, represented by Amadeus Tempelton and Boris Matchin, as well as Dr. Daniel-Frédéric Lebon (Opus3Artists) represents the advisory board of the Association for the Promotion of Classical Music e.V. This enriches the association with further perspectives from different areas of classical music.

The association was founded after the Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI) announced the end of all Echo awards in the pop, classical and jazz categories in 2018 in order to start with the OPUS KLASSIK to establish a new award for classical music that will be continuously developed further:

“Classical music in Germany must be recognized with its own prize,” says Burkhard Glashoff. “We, the founding members, have set ourselves the goal of recognizing and honoring extraordinary achievements in classical music. We developed a concept for a new music award that is even broader than in the past and reflects the industry in all its diversity.”