school – Bands Against Racism Erasmus Project

Project Title

school – Bands Against Racism

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Social dialogue; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Within the framework of the project “School Bands Against Racism“ three big bands from the partner countries Greece, the Netherlands, and Austria dealt with the topics discrimination and racism. In this connection the universal language was music. Through the close cooperation all participants could learn a lot from each other by means of intensive discussions and activities which were undertaken together. Apart from making music together above all, the cultural exchange was right at the top of our list of priorities. The students could talk about their home countries and by doing that they could learn a lot about the chulture, the traditions, and the history of the partner countries and in doing so they could find out both things we have in common and cultural differences. So, many international friendships arose by making friends with each other. This strong sense of unity and solidarity could be felt mainly during our joint performances on the stage.
The project “Bands Against Racism“ pursued several goals. Together with all students of the three partner countries who are between 12 and 19 years old a joint school band was founded. In doing so we succeeded in inspiring and motivating the participating musicians and therewith in fostering their musical talents. By means of joint concerts in all partner countries a large audience could be convinced of the musicality of the talented youth. By trips and joint activities all participants were encouraged to leave their comfort zone and to open themselves for the cultural exchange. In a joint undertaking the students dealt not only intensively with European values and the awareness of democracy, but also with the topics racism and discrimination. Furthermore, we succeeded in passing on these experiences and impressions to the audience of our concerts. Beyond that also the digital skills of the students were promoted. Specially mixed, edited, and mastered videos were published on YouTube and can be called up on our website as well. (http://bandsagainstracism.com/Media/YouTube/)
But in addition to the confrontation with the content also the musical and creative potential of the participants was stimulated by making music together. By means of music titles, which have a connection to the topics racism and discrimination, content and music could be connected with each other. Through a multilingual moderation and especially selected pieces of music, also the audience could be confronted with the topics and could be made thinking about it.
By means of this project we did not only succeed in promoting the musical development of the participating students , but also in stimulating cultural exchange and the confrontation with the topics racism and discrimination. The joint experiences and concerts welded all participants tightly together and thus one of our main concerns could be reached by the means of the universal language of music: international friendships which will hopefully last still for a long time.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 102095 Eur

Project Coordinator

Höhere technische Bundeslehranstalt 1, Linz & Country: AT

Project Partners

• Music School of Corinth
• OSG Sevenwolden