BACKGROUND Symphony for All - Amman
Our objective
The world is a colourful mix of cultures, and nothing is more suitable to illustrate this than music. This project unites people from very different backgrounds and stimulates the inclusion of less privileged people in society. To realize a complex and large symphony together is not only an exceptional achievement for the participants, it is also a symbol of how differences can flow together in a unity that is more than the sum of the parts.
The Process
The participants exchange experience, skills and knowledge. They will learn new techniques of playing and teaching and invent unusual forms of performing. The process will involve young participants in a lively intercultural dialogue on a Euro-Mediterranean scale; thus contribute to a better cultural understanding between youngsters of different age groups.
The symphony
This composition is a large scale, demanding and challenging symphony of about 50 minutes, to be performed by over 200 professional musicians, music students and children. Finally, even the audience sings along.
It is a work of contrasts: the combination of professional excellence and the energetic activity of young music players provides a dynamic range of delicate sound colors. Intimate solo elements are confronted with the power of a very large orchestra. Nature sounds, refined harmonies and virtuoso passages form a unity.
Involvement
Performing a large orchestral piece is an almost supernatural experience that is largely the privilege of professional musicians. In this project, students and children can feel the power of a huge orchestra. They are not just included for educational reasons though, they are essential to realize a particular artistic result. Even the audience, normally expected to humbly sit and listen, will become actively involved.
Education
In the past years, Merlijn Twaalfhoven developed a unique way of working, combining conventional music practice with interactive creation in workshops. This project brings together classical vocabulary, traditional tunes with the creative development of sounds and music. Therefore it is for the participants not only challenging and skillful, rooted in local and western traditions but also alive and open for individual input. This makes the project a unparalleled opportunity for both personal expression, academic skills and innovative artistic creation.
On schools with children with few opportunities, the workshop leaders make music-games and excercises to prepare the pupils for a role in the Symphony. The focus will be on percussion and voice. Instruments are self-made or very cheap to emphasis that making music is not a matter of class or money. It is a common language in which children from contrasting backgrounds will unite on a basis of equality.
Media component
Although the Middle East is in the international news every day, the richness of Arab culture and the daily life in general is almost unknown to a lot of westerners. To bring a different reality to a large audience, this project has the aim to attract attention of the large news networks. A documentary will follow participants from the different cultures in Jordan and Palestine in their preparations for the concert, as well as in their daily lives. The size and unusual configuration of this orchestra will generate a lot of attention in the national news, and draws attention to the activities of the conservatories and the music therapy program of Music in ME.