The name “Casals Forum” pays tribute to the great cellist and humanist, Pablo Casals. The forum-style concert hall will be the hub of Kronberg Academy – an open space where ideas and views about music can be exchanged, and where different generations of musicians can inspire one another, present themselves to audiences and share their ideas with them.
Pablo Casals (1876–1973) was the embodiment of the ideal artist, who made humanity the overriding principle in everything he did and, in so doing, had a profound connection with nature. Throughout his long life, the world-famous cellist was a tireless, uncompromising, courageous champion of world peace and freedom. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958. Catalonian by birth, Pablo Casals spent the last (almost) four decades of his life in exile, in protest against the Franco dictatorship that controlled his native country.