“Two hundred and thirty children from forty countries and their teachers from Altweg school in Zurich perform twelve songs in ten languages, accompanied by young musicians in various ensembles. A slideshow of images, videos and texts and a routine choreographed by the children themselves provide a fitting backdrop for the songs.”
An event hosted by the 2nd “Music for Change” HUB, internationalization@home and the BA Music and Movement programme in conjunction with the BA Music (instrumental, classical and jazz) course
Thursday, 14 December 2017, 17:00 to 19:00 h
Toni Campus, Kaskadenhalle, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, CH-8005 Zurich
Project manager: Ange Tangermann
Project coach: Herbert Fiedler
Musical support: Andreas Nick
Rehearsals, musical direction, arrangements, etc.: BA Music and Movement 3 (Martina Cudini, Flavia Hangartner, Lucio Hürlimann, Linda Messerli, Meret Weilenmann, Annina Zeller)
Instrumental ensemble: BA Music students
All of the children from Altweg primary school in Zurich were performing twelve songs in ten languages together with their teachers as part of a 50-minute choral concert held at the Kaskadenhalle on the Toni Campus. ZHdK students provided the instrumental accompaniment and musical direction.
Degree students from the BA Music and Movement programme were running rehearsals for the children at Altweg school every week for six months under the guidance of Ange Tangermann. The project also involved arranging the instrumental accompaniment and rehearsing with the ensemble musicians as well as designing the slideshow of images, filming and choreographing the choir’s routine. The songs and music for the concert were chosen jointly by the students and the children, their families and teachers. All the selected songs had their roots in the children’s home countries and were of personal significance to them. The aim of the joint rehearsals (singing, moving, designing and performing) was to create togetherness and mutual respect, with the music acting as a common language between people from different cultures and generations. The initial focus was on internationality as a part of everyday school life in Switzerland, while the music was at the heart of the singing as a group and performing at the Kaskadenhalle on the Toni Campus. During the ten weeks of rehearsals, the school was promoting community singing, thus helping to enhance the quality and importance of singing as a part of everyday school life.