Classical music

    My heart is beating for the deepness of classical music, which I listened since I was a child. Classical music belongs to our culture. The important part of the education of our children, which are our future, is classical music. For this reason it is very important to present them the beauty of the music in the early age for a deeper understanding of emotions. Even in pregnancy it is important, that the mother shares this love with her baby by listening to it.   Chopin and his romantic music is one of my favorite composers: his rare gift to create very personal melodies, expressive of heartfelt emotion: his music is penetrated by a poetic feeling, that has an almost universal appeal. I love Puccini and Verdi Operas and their superb stagecraft, the wonderful ability to unite music, words and drama in a single moment. Verdi’s and Puccini’s Operas have the most popular and unforgettable love stories ever written. In my opinion classical music is the finest art. I like to see numerous artists, preparing themselves for their music. It is a big and long process of studying. Imagine Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Nabucco” with the highest number of musi- cians standing on the stage and playing music together, this it is a big challenge. I also appreciate very much the music of one of the leading pianists of russian music in the late romantic period, Sergei Rachmaninoff and the dramatic moments connected to his music.        

The IM-Foundation

  In April 2016, I founded the IMF – International Music Foundation for Highly Gifted Children, based in Vienna. Its purpose is to support talented children between the age of five and sixteen in their musical development, making classical music accessible to a broader audience, particularly to the younger generation. This support is carried out through organising age- appropriate masterclasses, auditions and concerts. Musically gifted children are selected at an audition by professional judges, who are chosen from the most important institutions of Austria. The finalists perform at the gala concert “Golden Note”. Here they can show their talents on the big stage, subsequently receiving awards of achievement presented by an honorable committee. The finalists receive financial support as well as masterclasses on the highest level, in order to present the gifted children with numerous possibilities to receive expert tuition. The tuition is individualised according to their specific development needs, allowing them the opportunity to learn from experienced professional musicians. In addition to the music award Golden Note, IMF organises benefit concerts and other events, where the young talents may gain experience in performance. Take the opportunity to become a member now and help us to foster young talents,   all the informations related to our membership are on our website www.im-foundation.com. @ goldene_note    

Inspiration

  The inspiration for starting the Foundation was my daughter, who started to play piano at three and a half years old. In the year of IMF’s creation, I was living in Monaco and traveled with my daughter for her piano competitions and concerts. Then I realized how beautiful this world of passion and love for music is, where children are the protagonists, having a lot of inner boost and motivation to win, to compete and to perform. I saw also how much the small musicians look for the satisfaction coming from their performances and therefore I decided to participate in making this musical world for talented children better. Of course, this is only possible with the big support, not only of parents, professors, music institutions, artists and politics, but especially with the support of sponsors who open their heart for music and children, making the world of music better, because everything starts from the young generations. Liechtensteinische Landesbank, as our main sponsor, Chopard, Kronen, Zeitung and some others show us how important this topic is in the cultural and intellectual world of each of us. I want to give thanks for the generosity of these beautiful people.  

The foundation with family life

Since I founded the International Music Foundation for highly gifted children nothing occupies my brain more. The children and the music became the biggest part of my life. On the other hand, I started to carry with me a huge responsibility towards the children, the music institutions, towards the sponsors and at the end also towards the public. I try to balance this pressure, thanks to my partner Federico Pastorello, who shows big understanding and love for this project. We don´t live together, but I try to find time for us between my work and my daughter. Until now it works very well and I hope as well, that we will manage to involve a new country, where we could help other young, talented musicians, outside of Austria. The Golden Note has become a well-known name and it deserves to be presented in other countries as well.  

Intertwining music and fashion

  My first instinct would tell me to split music, children and fashion but the best approach is exactly the opposite. Already the first year of the Golden Note showed me, that we can successfully combine fashion designers and performing musicians. I have a co-operation with the designers, who are dressing up the performers. I enjoy beautiful things in life as anyone, therefore I have a lot of interest in fashion and from this point of view I have many contacts who are mostly very useful for my foundation.    

Looking to the future

  I have exact visions for the foundation and exact ideas of how to support young musicians internationally. This needs a lot of my energy, a lot of ideas regarding how to reach targets and many contacts and networking. I have been reaching all my targets very fast and I fully believe that I will go on in this way. I don´t want to specify the details of these targets shortly before they are reached. But the year 2020 will bring us many great surprises and great success and the Golden Note will be seen on television on ORF III at the end of June 2020. What I plan in the near future are small concerts and performances for the young talents and at the end of November a Press Conference where important information regarding next year will be shared.  

Chopard watches and jewelry

  Chopard is for me the most beautiful luxury brand existing since 1860. Many times, the jewelry and watches have a theme, which you can see on their design. The palm, symbol of the Cannes Film Festival, is reflected in the watches and other jewelry pieces, touching luxury with the finest elegance and creativity. Chopard is for me a brand which carries the highest quality and works with 100% ethical gold. What I appreciate is Chopard’s eco-responsibility by asserting a determination to work in a respectful way towards human beings and the environment. Chopard is for me the most beautiful and elegant jewelry maker and every person who wears this jewelry makes a lifetime investment as well as for the next generations.

Favorite Chopard qualities

  Caroline Scheufele is an incredible and generous person who is dedicated to her brand. She has a big heart for people who are in need and participates in helping the world to be a better place. We can see how big Caroline’s heart is from her activities with many charities, which demonstrates her commitment to noble causes. She didn´t only create the “Happy Hearts Collection”, she also supports a charity that helps rebuild schools and children’s lives after natural disasters, people affected by leukemia, as well as supporting the families of children with handicaps. Caroline Scheufele has many beautiful sides and one of those is her love for music, which allows me to support musically highly gifted children.      

Daily routine and beauty regimen

I don´t really know if I have a routine life. I am not sure if that is fortunate, or not. But as my work is not only focused in Austria and as my private life is concentrated in many places around the world, it is difficult to describe a daily routine. In any case, this is the routine program of a day in Vienna: Immediately when I get up I read the newspaper and then I meet my assistant, Olimpia for all the issues relating to my work for the young musicians, which takes already a couple of hours, then I have meetings with my partners and artists. The second part of the day belongs to my daughter, who I love more than everything. Concerning my beauty regime, every morning I do a fast make up and this is for me the best way to do it. Of course, a sports program in the day of every woman should not be missed. I push myself to do three to four times a week a fitness lesson with a personal trainer, because it is very important and healthy to keep the body defined and have good skin as well. What has become very important for me in the past few years is to avoid the sun, in order to maintain young, beautiful skin.  

Social and philanthropic life

Of course, social life is a very important part of my life, it always has been and especially since I started my activities in the foundation, which takes most of my time and has become a tremendous part of my life. Going to the events connected to music, visiting operas, going to the events of artists meeting other artists, taking part in the events of my sponsors, going to the events to get the right and helpful connections, trying to build a network with other foundations internationally.    

Favorite cities

The city I live in now is Vienna, I moved from Monaco. Before I was living Prague. I chose Vienna because I am of the opinion that Vienna is an incredible city to live in and Austria has a great education. As we all know, it has been voted the number one place for the highest lifestyle, way before London, Paris and Zurich. I suppose, it is because of the big music world and its events, which are taking place in Vienna thanks to the big opera houses, numerous theaters, concert houses and music halls, as well as the large number of museums and exhibitions. Concerning the culinary aspects, of course I love Sacher Cakes, sometimes I just go next to the opera house to eat the best Sacher cake at the Sacher Hotel or a delicious dessert at Demel and personally Gerstner’s chocolate in Vienna is my secret love. For the harmony of the soul we need to travel, to see other places, other cultures and other languages. My favorite city to spend a couple of days in with my romantic love is Paris. Although in the past years many terrorist attacks happened there, which I personally experienced. It is heart breaking to have seen the atmosphere in the days after. But I believe – and we can see it already- that people are forgetting very fast and Paris is developing in a colorful way. My heart belongs to the sea; my soul finds a special feeling looking at the sunset over the sea. I just came from America and I confirmed again that we are very lucky to live in Europe because here you have the most beautiful places with a lot of quality, beauty, incredible nature, culture and art.