The Belgian association "Muzaïka - Les Productions du plaisir", regularly organizes workshops centered around singing in primary schools. Its artistic director, the singer Raphy Rafael offers them a repertoire of songs that arouse multiple emotions among children, adults and families through their messages of openness, tolerance and love. Our Erasmus + project will allow the different partners to sing these songs, to create new songs that they will share with the children of other partner countries. This will not only give the children and the educational teams involved the opportunity to develop skills around these songs, but also open the door to emotions and be a formidable vehicle for inclusion and openness to others Cultures, other religions, and the artistic worlds. Indeed, the songs created will be exchanged between the children of the different countries who will sing them at local and regional concerts at first. Then they will sing them together at a major international concert in Brussels. These experiences of shared songs, in addition to strengthening musical, emotional and linguistic skills and abilities, will contribute to social cohesion at the local, national and international levels.
The Belgian non-profit association "Muzaïka - Les Productions du Plaisir", the project coordinator, regularly organizes learning and songwriting workshops in primary schools in Belgium. Those workshops awaken multiple emotions among children, adults and families thanks to their messages of openness, tolerance and love. They proposed the concept to partners from other countries with the goal of setting up an international children's choir with an original repertoire created in each of the languages of the countries involved in the project. Partners from Turkey, Spain and Great Britain were excited by the proposal. They were attracted by the title of the project: "song and inclusion". The particularity of these partners being the socio-cultural and disadvantaged environment of their school population and even a majority of migrant children for the Spanish and Turkish school. Thus, children from 7 schools in 4 countries (Belgium, Turkey, United Kingdom and Spain) have created and presented in concerts a repertoire of songs in 4 languages. Raphy Rafaël, artistic director and artist of the association helped each of the partners to create the songs (lyrics and original music). Each school has chosen themes from their daily lives (history, environment, culture) and at the same time so universal: love, flowering fruit, sun, individual gifts, friendship, ..... Fifteen songs in four languages were shared and learned by each partner (using media such as skype, videos, sheet music, recordings, ...) supported by local music teachers and / or musicians. The second Belgian partner, Vitamine Music, with the help of Marie-Paule Letawe, then helped the different groups to work with a musical precision. The thirty to sixty students from each school were able to set up a concert in their respective city (with a mixed repertoire: Raphy-Rafael songs and original songs of their own). The resources granted by Erasmus allowed each of the partners to offer their students a majestic setting for this concert: theater, light and sound professionals, presenter, invited official personalities, .... In the room, a mixed audience, composed of proud parents and local personalities. Many of them warmly thanked the management and the teaching teams for putting this project into action. Finally, each of the partners learned, with the help of Raphy-Rafael, the refrains of songs from other countries (in other languages). The apotheosis of the project was the international concert given in Belgium: about fifteen children from each country were sent by their school, with their specific repertoire, to constitute the international choir that would give 4 concerts (school and all public). Each of the schools sang the verse she had written, the chorus was repeated in chorus by all the children. This repertoire of original creations was punctuated by songs from Raphy-Rafaël's repertoire performed by all the children. Images were taken in each country during concerts and cultural / educational events. A film / report of the project is published on youtube. This project allowed children and educational teams to develop skills around song writing (notions of rhythm, cesure, rhymes, stanzas, chorus, tone, .....). In addition to these musical, cultural and linguistic skills and abilities, singing together has been a great vehicle for inclusion and openness to other cultures, other religions, and artistic worlds.