Salut Deluxe
Hip Hop meets Klassik
In 2020, Angelika founded the SalutDeluxe association together with hip-hop artist Samy Deluxe with the aim of musically stimulating and promoting children and young people regardless of their social background, as well as making them fit for teamwork and personal responsibility so that they grow up to be open, strong personalities. It is a place of experimentation without conceit and hurdles - where creativity can be lived out.
"Those who get to know different milieus and allow diverse influences are less prone to exclusionary behavior," explains Samy. The point is that adolescents don't get stuck in predetermined ways of thinking, but explore musical styles and cultures with curiosity. Classical meets rap, etudes meets freestyle, and concert hall meets club culture.
"Racism is also a big issue in music. Why, for example, are People of Color so extremely underrepresented in orchestras? Why are Afro-Germans more likely to listen to hip-hop than classical music? It's absurd," Angelika says. SalutDeluxe wants to break down such attributions and develop new narratives free of prejudice.
SalutDeluxe is aimed at children and young people from school age. The programs take place in the areas of music and education, with a particular focus on ensuring that coaches and participants meet as equals. According to the principle "each one teaches one", the children and young people should also impart knowledge and skills to each other. "If you can help shape things, you also feel taken seriously," says Samy. "That strengthens self-esteem." SalutDeluxe is breaking new ground in music promotion and community education in Hamburg. The aim is to reach children and young people who otherwise have no access to music and its various genres. Angelika says: "Music trains the ability to look out for each other. This is how we can establish positive togetherness beyond stereotypes."
SalutDeluxe offers a diverse range of workshops from urban music and classical music free of charge: sawing f-holes into a violin top in the violin making workshop, beat producing, conducting for girls, Afro-house dance, writing a climate rap, spoken word art, making drum sounds ("chopping") sound on the violin, graffiti and beatbox workshops, crash course in piano playing, puppetry, How can you rap opera lyrics and write opera arias from rap lyrics? SalutDeluxe also wants to show what career prospects exist in the music and media industry: Creating podcasts, producing songs and developing video formats. The cooperation with Stage Entertainment and the musical HAMILTON enables children and young people to learn about the variety of theater professions in regular workshops, get insider tips on rap techniques, choreography or acting, and be creative themselves.
SalutDeluxe is sponsored by the Haspa Music Foundation of the Hamburger Sparkasse. Angelika and Samy's collaboration began in 2017 with an artistic border crossing between classical music and hip-hop, the jointly written song "Wie tief kann man lieben" ("How deeply can you love"), which they presented live at the PXP Festival at Berlin's Waldbühne and the Elbphilharmonie, among other venues.