For two decades, filmmaker and historian Kerry Candaele has explored the world of Ludwig van Beethoven—and the musical worlds Beethoven created.

Now, with the Ode to Joy Foundation, Candaele makes three films the core of an educational curriculum that brings together music, film, history, literature, ethics and writing. Candaele believes that the innovative, immersive study of Beethoven, his art, and his times can inspire high school and college students, community leaders, members of youth and community orchestras, and individuals of all ages to embrace and enhance their own capacities to understand others, foster beauty and heal and repair the world.

The Ode to Joy Foundation is crafting a powerful but flexible curriculum designed to introduce not only Beethoven and his work, but also to weave the threads of history, culture, imagination and ethics that give the work its enduring relevance. Two hundred years after the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven’s life and music still whisper mysteries and challenges to us. They ask us to think and feel deeply, and to find the best within ourselves.  The Ode to Joy Foundation seeks to guide us along the way.

At the core of the curriculum are the three films in Candaele’s Beethoven Hero Trilogy:

With his film “Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony”(2013), Candaele tracked the creation of the composer’s immortal Ninth Symphony and its global impact in the modern world, where the music has touched and transformed hearts and minds, stirred movements, and shaken nations.

You can now watch “Following the Ninth” for free on YouTube.

The second film in the trilogy, Love & Justice: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Rebel Opera, developed a unique narrative and musical collage.  Love & Justice brings together the story of Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio—a battle cry against tyranny and persecution—with scenes from the opera starring Chilean performers. These young musicians are the heirs to a generation that suffered through Agosto Pinochet’s military dictatorship (1973-1990), and they know intimately the costs of violent repression. The final element of the collage is the story of a Chilean composer and conductor Jorge Peña Hen, who was killed by the military dictatorship. The composer’s granddaughter, Maria Belen Espinosa Peña, has devoted her own artistic career to rescuing maestro Peña Hen's story from “the prison of forgetting.” And she uses Fidelio to help in that rescue.

The third film in the trilogy, “Last Will & Testament: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Late Quartets,” tells the story of Beethoven’s difficult final years, when, having gone profoundly deaf, he retreated into himself and emerged with some of the most heart-wrenching and yet inspiring music the world has ever known. In the face of mortality and physical diminishment he found within himself the strength of his full humanity and gave the world an enduring gift. What does his accomplishment say about our internal resources and our ability to create beauty even from the seemingly unpromising soil of loneliness? How does the power of our own creativity elevate us in our darkest moments and give us a chance to experience and share the sublime?

The curriculum will also draw on classic and modern texts and resources. (Visit the curriculum page for more information.)

We invite you to join us on this educational and inspirational journey with Beethoven by supporting the Ode to Joy Foundation today.