Arts and Culture Palestine Project #19602

A Collective Song: Music to Make Hearts Sing

by Rebuilding Alliance

A Collective Song: Music to Make Hearts Sing

Project Report | Oct 6, 2015
BIG NEWS: Edward Said National Music Conservatory

By Donna Baranski-Walker | Founder & Executive Director, Rebuilding Alliance

The ESNMC is bringing 2 teachers, violins, cellos!

Dear Friends of Lina's Project,

I am delighted to report that Director Suhail Khoury of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music has confirmed that the ESNCM will be sending two teachers to Al Aqaba Village to teach violin, viola and cello! The teachers have already started, visiting Al Aqaba, and bringing violins to 26 the children who have signed-up. Mayor Haj Sami and the parents are especially excited because their new park was just finished, and they look forward to future performances!

Now, please take a moment to set your alarm for 9am Pacific Time on Wednesday, October 7th. We are jazzed because the Microsoft Youthspark program will be matching all donations up to $1000 for this project until 8:59pm!

Let me tell you more. This summer, after our intern and project originator, Lina, and I sent our proposal and called Director Khoury wrote to update us:

"I visited Al-Aqaba last week and met with the mayor of the village. I am pleased to let you know that we will be happy to implement a music program there. The details are not clear yet but most probably it will be a strings program where we might be sending not one teacher but two. We will also maybe be able to provide some violins from our side which might make it possible to spend a bit more on the teaching. I will send you soon a more concrete program after another visit by our teachers to Al Aqaba."

On Saturday we received the good news. Director Khoury wrote,
"I am happy to let you know that the teachers have already been to Al-Aqaba twice. They have chosen 26 students, 8-10 year old. The plan is to create a small strings orchestra that can eventually join other string orchestras that we train in three refugee camps. The students will learn to play violin, viola and cello. 18 violin/violas and 8 cellos. The ESNCM will be able to provide the violins but the cellos have to be bought as we do not have the correct sizes and numbers. We will also have to buy some percussion instruments for general musicianship class skills, as well as an audio system, a digital piano and stands. We are excited about the project and hope to realize it,"

They have already started - our next step is to complete our written agreement. I'll be updating the Collective Song Music Center project description soon to reflect this new partnership.

Please do make your donation on Wednesday 9am - 8:59pm Pacific time to receive a match from Microsoft's Youthspark program. Our goal is to raise the $10,500 remaining to fully fund the Collective Song Music Center program, and make hearts sing!

With sincere thanks,

Donna

P.S. Donations up to $1000 will receive a match on Wednesday for Lina's Collective Song Music Center. Please click to donate online and please ask your friends to give too!

Links:

The ESNCM is at the forefront of musical life in Palestine

Back to all project reports

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.