BUILDING A EUROPEAN ORCHESTRA Erasmus Project

Project Title

BUILDING A EUROPEAN ORCHESTRA

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Music is considered a universal language because it transcends to all race regardless of any language barrier. Music can communicate effectively to all men around the world and can help Europeans to know each other better overcoming “mental borders” in people’s minds (national, linguistic, cultural, historical, etc.).
This project, titled “Building a European Orchestra” involved an exchange between three music high schools from Italy, Lithuania and Romania. The aim was not only to share music teaching methods and strategies, but especially to compare and finally merge the orchestras of the respective high schools from all countries. The orchestras played some music pieces separately and finally they were put together to play as one the pieces of music closing the concerts (the European anthem and, in Italy, also the “Va, pensiero” from Verdi’s “Nabucco”). Of course this happened as a result of a previous proper training activity!
This cooperation has enriched the knowledge, the skills and the attitudes of the participants. They have learnt to appreciate the benefits of international cooperation, to overcome language and cultural barriers. They have improved their music skills and learnt how to use modern communication tools. The participating schools have also acquired the know-how to set up future international projects.
The students of the music high school of Nuoro are geographically and socially disadvantaged. Their families cannot support them financially to enable them to participate in contests and meetings outside the island in order to relate and compare themselves to other high schools musical. This project aimed to get them out of isolation and helped them to learn about different realities, especially in countries that have different methods and strategies of teaching and a longer tradition of music teaching.
Klaipeda Conservatory has a very long music teaching tradition, students hold a lot of concerts but mostly they played in Lithuania, because trips abroad were too expensive. Students from Romania had never participated in international projects. This project gave them the chance to perform abroad and collaborate with other countries.
Of course, this exchange has enriched all the participating partners.
All students and most of the staff of all schools were involved in the project.
Cooperation and communication were established via modern means of communication (e-twinning, e-mail, Skype, etc.) and via the meetings. All communications were made in English.
The first meeting was a preparatory visit that took place in Romania in October 2015. During this meeting the teachers chose the musical pieces and the corresponding music sheets to be adapted to the skills of the members of the orchestras, in order to prepare the training activities and the concerts that were held during the meetings in Lithuania (May 2016), Romania (October 2016), Italy (May 2017).
The final product of the project is a DVD with the recording (audio and video) of the final concert, distributed to the students, their families, other schools in the area, libraries and to anyone who requested it. The rehearsals for the concerts were also filmed and kept in the schools as a testimony to the progress the orchestras made from the beginning till the end of the project.
The impact on the students was very large: for most of them it was the first time to have first-hand encounters with students from another country, they have learnt and improved a comprehensive range of key skills and also developed their social graces, friendliness, reliability and adaptability. Staff have benefitted from the opportunity of an international work, experiencing different teaching styles, transferring skills from a country to another, raising standards across the curriculum.
A Web site and a Facebook account were opened to gather all relevant information about the project and to share impressions about its evolution. The project results were disseminated to a maximum number of people: the students, the staff, their families, the school community, the audience at large.
The final product of the project, a DVD, has been promoted via the project website, the Facebook page and the Twinspace. The concerts were widely advertised and guests including school governors, local councillors, parents and staff were invited.
The project was promoted in each school’s transition document given to parents and at open evenings.
All schools issued press releases to the local media.
At the end of the project, the partner schools remained in contact to work together and exchange good practises, music sheets, etc.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 132579,56 Eur

Project Coordinator

Liceo delle Scienze Umane e Musicale “Sebastiano Satta” & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Colegiul National de Muzica George Enescu
• Klaipedos Stasio Simkaus konservatorija