Music is forever, for everyone, everywhere! – Creating and performing a music show with music from different decades of the 20th and 21st century Erasmus Project

Project Title

Music is forever, for everyone, everywhere! – Creating and performing a music show with music from different decades of the 20th and 21st century

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project “Music is forever, for everyone, everywhere!” was run by four partner schools from Speyer (Germany), Rantasalmi (Finland), Jonkoping (Sweden) and Badajoz (Spain).
The main objective of the project was the planning and realisation of a music show. The story line, the selection and the arrangement of the songs, the costumes, the marketing and information material, the entrance tickets and other merchandising products (t-shirts, stickers) were developed and produced by the students. According to the agreements made during the joint preparations for the project the students decided on a frame story and the songs to be performed in the show on the first transnational project meeting in Jonkoping in November 2016. The frame story of the show is about a young man searching for the woman he fell in love with. On his search a magic stone, who gives the show its name “Stone away”, again and again throws him into different years of the 20th and 21st century. In each of these years a contemporary song or piece of music is performed, supplemented by dancing elements and two short fashion shows. By looking back at the rough planning from the application form (“a trip through time with stopovers in all participating countries or a ‘Boy meets Girl’-story in different generations”) it can easily be stated that it prepared a perfect ground for the students to let their creativity run free and to regard the final concept of the music show as their own creation leading to a high level identification with the project among the participating students.

The coordinating school was the Johann-Joachim-Becher Schule BBS Speyer. There, slightly over 1,600 students are taught by a approximately 100 teachers in a wide range of different classes and school forms. The students participating in the project mainly came from the three-year-college for bespoke tailoring. Their role in the project was to design and produce the costumes for the music show. At the music shows they were supported by hairstylist trainees from Speyer and Jonkoping taking care of the hair styles an the make-up of the singers, musicians, dancers and actors.”Rantasalmen lukio” is a upper secondary school with 65 students located in the small community of Rantasalmi in the east of Finland. The school is specialised in music and studio technology. In these fields the school cooperates with the local wind band society and the adult education center of Rantasalmi.The “Plusgymnasiet” in Jonköping has a total number of about 300 students aged between 16 and 19. The students participating in the project focus on music, one out of six different specialisations.The students from Finland and Sweden provided most of the singers and musicians for the project. At the “IES Reino Aftasi” in Badajoz, 63 teachers work together with about 800 students. The most important specialisation of the school is the department for fine and visual arts focusing on print media design. This is why the students from the Spanish partner school were in charge of the Corporate Design (including the logo and the color concept), all kinds of PR material (posters, flyers, stickers, program leaflet, entrance tickets). They were also responsible for the complete and final documentation of the project as a whole in an e-book. Moreover, the Spanish partner school contributed to the realisation of the show by providing the dancers and two additional singers. They also created and delivered the sound effects for the music show.

Through the project activities as described above the specialist skills of all participating students were supported and enhanced. The methodological approach of the project focused on self-steered learning and peer learning. The teachers only set the frame for the project activities and supported the students as coordinators and advisors whenever it was necessary. The project followed a holistic approach. The bespoke tailors did not – as usually – produce the costumes for a fashion show, but contributed considerably to an international musical joint venture. The musicians experienced that the music was supplemented, refined and completed by the costumes. The print designers learned how important the visual presentation and the marketing material is for each project that is aimed at the public and designed to attract an audience.

At each partner school the project initiated experience and structures thus laying the foundation and providing resources serving as a basis for future European activities. The participants of the project were able to enhance their professional, personal, social and inter-cultural competences which has positively influenced their chances for their future professional careers. Especially the students from all partner schools affected by social, economic and geographic marginalisation are going to benefit from their participation in the project to an extend that can hardly be overestimated..

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 80630 Eur

Project Coordinator

Johann-Joachim-Becher-Schule Berufsbildende Schule Speyer & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Plusgymnasiet AB
• IES REINO AFTASÍ
• Rantasalmen lukio