Brno's participation in the URBACT OnStage network has been one of the first Czech experiences in using music education programs to promote social change. Two city schools now offer - even in the days of Covid-19 - free music lessons for enthusiastic children, a large majority of whom belong to the Roma community.
The idea to use music educational programs to promote social change is quite new in the Czech context. Even though there is a dense network of state basic music schools in the country, which offers courses of music and performing arts for affordable fees for any applicant, there are children, especially in the deprived area of our city, who do not usually enroll in such programs. That is the reason why Brno decided to follow the good practice of the municipal music school EMMCA of the leading city L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and to bring music education to these children directly into their primary schools through the URBACT OnStage network.
Guitar lesson in primary school ZŠ Merhautova (5.3.2020)
So far, free music group lessons have been set up and offered within the OnStage project in two primary schools located in areas of the city considered as at risk of social exclusion. The lessons, based on the methodology of El Sistema, started in September 2019 in the primary school ZŠ Osmec offering violin and violoncello practice and in the primary school ZŠ Merhautova in January 2020, with guitar learning.
Children met several times a week to practice – and only after a few months of practicing students learnt to perform a simple melody together. All the teachers leading the programs agreed that such intensive group-based education is both beneficial and challenging at the same time – children made fast progress by motivating each other to a better performance but tended to get at the same time more distracted in group lessons and to lose more motivation than it could happen in a traditional individual lesson as Czech basic music schools usually offer.
A teacher choosing guitars to purchase for the programs (January 2020)
The majority of students enrolled in the programs are Roma children, whose cultural tradition is deeply connected to playing music. Especially the older generation of Roma people still own music instruments and can play them. Nowadays, this tradition is not as vivid as it used to be, but the positive feeling for the music is still present. According to the teachers, some of these children are naturally talented and have a very good sense for music.
The challenge of maintain music lessons during Covid-19
The Covid-19 has entered into our lives unexpectedly forcing us to slow down in all our social activities in private and professional life. With the quarantine, the majority of our activities within the OnStage project also had to be interrupted. But forced social distancing has not only had negative impacts. We have learnt that there are ways to stay connected in such a difficult time. One of our music programs - in the primary school ZŠ Merhautova - continued in form of individual online courses and proved us that even under unusual circumstances, this new way of teaching and promoting music is a good thing for Brno and gives us hope that in the future more of these programs could be implemented.
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Article written by Andrea Barickmanová. For more information, please contact her at barickmanova.andrea@brno.cz