The City of Leipzig's CLARA19 festival year receives the 2019 Tourism Award in the category Companies and Institutions. Since 2002, Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing (LTM) GmbH has been honouring companies or institutions and, since 2012, also personalities who have rendered outstanding services to tourism. CLARA19 showed the vitality and diversity as well as the sense of community of Leipzig as a city of music in a rousing manner.

The award was presented on Thursday evening in Leipzig's Felsenkeller by LTM managing director Volker Bremer. In his laudatory speech he said: "CLARA19 sparked a unique euphoria in the music city of Leipzig and far beyond the city's borders, accompanied by national and international coverage.
coverage. Over 200 events by more than 60 partners, a radiant corporate design and a sophisticated marketing concept - including Clara's bouquet, Clärchen - caused a sensation. The festive year of the city of Leipzig was shaped by Gregor Nowak, artistic director of CLARA19 and director of the Schumann House, and Franziska Franke-Kern, responsible for PR and marketing." The patron of CLARA19, Cultural Mayor Dr Skadi Jennicke: "During the great Leipzig festival year 'CLARA19', I experienced the enthusiasm with which Leipzig's cultural actors rediscover Clara Schumann. The festival year developed into an experiment with an impressive momentum of its own: large and small cultural actors together put together an annual programme with over 200 events! The still "undiscovered" Clara Schumann opened up completely new facets for the music city of Leipzig. This is how traditional hegemonies begin to shift - and that is a good thing. Full of respect, I would like to thank everyone who made the extremely successful festival year 'CLARA19' possible, and of course I offer my heartfelt congratulations on the well-deserved Leipzig Tourism Award 2019!" CLARA19 will be a unique and varied festival year throughout Europe until mid-January 2020, featuring the Gewandhaus, MDR Rundfunkchor, Leipzig Ballet, Schumann House, Leipziger Notenspur and many other players. The preoccupation with Clara Schumann extends far beyond orchestral and chamber music concerts: theatre and ballet productions, exhibitions, colloquia as well as hikes, bicycle tours, sing-along concerts in the parks and an open-air church service are inspired by the versatility of the 19th century star. Clara's footsteps can be followed in original settings and her compositions can be heard in music venues that have been awarded the European Heritage Label. The highlight was the Schumann Festival Weeks (12-29 September). The Schumann House has been fascinating visitors with a new permanent exhibition since 14 September. It is now the first musician's museum in the world dedicated to an artist couple. Nominated in 2019 were 10 companies / institutions and 8 personalities. The Tourism Award in the category "Personalities" went to Dr. Walter Ebert, head of the Market Office of the City of Leipzig.