Politics and Music Making on Troubled Soils
Assumtions, choices and realities
Wouter Turkenburg, President of the International Association of Schools of Jazz, hold a speech on the beginning of teaching music to the 'ethnic minorities' in Amsterdam in the early 1980's. He described the unexpected difficulties that the music projects with Turkish and Marroccan immigrants had to face in the beginning. Nevertheless, some projects were successful and continue until today.
Download the written version of the presentation here
Spiritus Mundi
Henrik Melius is the founder and director of Spiritus Mundi, a Swedish organisation that works with culture as a tool to create meeting grounds, with focus on intercultural dialogue. The organisation was founded in August 2003. It is running projects, where Swedish children and young people with different social and cultural background write, record and perform music together. Furthermore it is carrying out several art exchanges between Swedish and Saudi children and Swedish and Middle Eastern musicians. Another kernel activity is the Spiritus Mundi orchestra, which has toured in the Middle East and echoing Western and Eastern music tradition.
Watch a short documentary on the foundation's work at http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=V-38_KmIuCo
More information at www.spiritusmundi.nu
Before the Shooting there was a song ...
... entitled the Slovenian professor Alenka Barber Kersovan, who is currently working at the University of Hamburg in Germany, her speech on the role of Music in the Yugoslav Civil Wars 1991 – 1999.
Peace Child Israel
The Israeli musician and drama expert, Melisse Lewine-Boskovich, is director of the organisation Peace Cild Israel, which educates for democratic values, tolerance and mutual respect. Arab and Jewish teens from partnering Arab and Jewish schools around the country meet weekly for 8 months before creating original dramas about coexistence and its challenges.
The organisation was founded 20 years ago and committed itself to the majority minority relations between Jews and Palestinians inside Israel. At this time it was much more common to be working on cross-border projects between Palestinians and Israelis, and thus it was easier to secure funding. Melisse deplores the current ignorance for the difficult relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel since the 2000 Distrubances.
Download Melisse's lecture script here.
Find more information at www.mideastweb.org/peacechild.