The Ruhr Piano Festival has been actively involved in Duisburg-Marxloh since 2008. In close cooperation with schools in the area, a pilot project was set up to support and encourage socio-economically disadvantaged children and young people and to nurture their creative talents.

The sustained community work of the Ruhr Piano Festival in Duisburg-Marxloh has inspired other schools: four schools in the North of Bochum have joined forces to set up something similar in their area. The Ruhr Piano Festival has been part of this process since 2018.

At the Little Piano School, children aged 2 to 6 discover the piano through play. They experiment in small groups, making sounds, singing and playing simple games; they move to music, and are introduced to the basics of piano playing.

The Ruhr Piano Festival, in close collaboration with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, has set up a prize-winning series for promoting new piano music. This initiative aims to instill enthusiasm for the music of our times in children and adults.