From: Music for Change [julie_at_musicforchange_dot_org]
Sent: 11 February 2009 17:13
Subject: MfC Global Newsletter-Spring 2009
newsletter top
topGlobal Newsletter-Spring 2009
EDUCATION LINKS
COMMUNITY LINKS
PROJECT LINKS

EVENT LINKS
GLOBAL CALENDAR
February
21 International Mother Language Day
23 Fairtrade Fortnight begins

March
2 Shout About Climate Change week
5 World Book Day
8 International Women's Day
9 Commonwealth Day
21 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
22 World Water Day

April
7 World Health Day

May
9 World Fair Trade Day
21 World Day for Cultural Diversity

June
5 World Environment Day
15 National Refugee Week

PROGRAMME PACKAGES
For further information contact Julie on:
tel: 01227 459 243
julie_at_musicforchang_dot_org


To find out how we can help you to programme workshops and events to mark any calendar events, please contact us or visit our website at www.musicforchange.org
The Following packages can be delivered through residencies in schools and community settings:

Safe and Sound
KS2 +

Workshops for and about Asylum seekers - i.e. raising awareness of who they are and why they may come here.

Silence the Violence
Upper KS2 +

(specifically the transition period)
Tackling the problem of gun and knife crime and gang culture in an innovative and creative way.  

Eat to the Beat
All ages

Healthy eating awareness-raising through comparisons between food we eat in England and food eaten in other countries and cultures.  

Calypso Cleanup
KS2 +

Awareness-raising of environmental issues through calypso song-writing.

Sound Subjects
All ages

Creativity in the curriculum - working with teachers to use the music and the arts to introduce, develop and revise national curriculum subjects.

World Wide Words
KS1+

Increasing boy's literacy skills through storytelling, percussion and songwriting.  Not artist specific.  
 
Building Friendships
KS2 +

Refugee and community integration for schools with either a refugee population or a large number of newly arrived pupils. Includes work on celebrating similarities and differences, as well as issues that arise through attempting community integration.  

Tablas, Tala and Trees
KS1 +

Raising awareness of the environment and interdependency through Indian Dance through storytelling and Indian percussion.

Greetings!
Welcome to our Spring edition of the Music for Change newsletter!  This season we're bringing you updates from all of our departments: Education, Community, Events and Projects. So whatever your interest you'll be sure to find relevant information about how Music for Change can work with you to add a lively, culturally diverse theme to your programme of activities.
NEWS and FEATURES

New Artist Profile brochureArtist MfC_logo

Music for Change is excited to be launching its new Artist Profile Brochure.  The brochure is intended to provide you with a comprehensive guide to the art forms and biographies for each of the artists we work with to help you when selecting who you would like to work with.


Without the skills and inspiration of our artists we would achieve very little. Their commitment, energy and focus is exceptional and a constant factor in our development and growth.  We hope the new brochure will give you an insight into the many exciting possibilities of working with Music for Change in your setting.  To view the brochure (pdf download) click on the following link or visit our website at 
www.musicforchange.org
EDUCATION NEWS

For more information about this and other themed packages contact Katy on tel: 01227 459243 or email: katy_at_musicforchange_dot_org

World Music Matters
Lonesome

Winston N'Zinga with Lonesome SchoolLonesome Primary School in Merton responded to a call for schools to participate in Music for Change's World Music Matters project funded by the Department for International Development (DFID). The school had decided to extend Black History Month activities with a whole school heritage project to explore the family links that the school has with other areas of the world - around 36 different countries and ethnic groups are represented in the school. The Head Teacher David Winters thought that this project would tie in very well with our World Music Matters Project, and that together they would feed in to the national WhoDo We Think We Are? project, with which the school is also involved, and EveryChild Matters outcomes.

The aim of the World Music Matters Project is for schools to collaborate with visiting artists to encourage a global dimension across the curriculum so that children better understand the global context of their lives and develop awareness and respect for different countries and cultures and an understanding of inequalities in the world.

Year 4 classes had the opportunity to work with three artists: Winston Nzinga, Daniel James and Kevin Campbell. Over the 4 week residency the children learned and then performed songs and stories from Jamaica and even wrote, recorded and performed their very own reggae track!

Winston Nzinga introduced the children to uniquely Jamaican Mento rhythms and oral storytelling featuring Anansi, one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.

In the song writing sessions with Kevin and Daniel, lyric ideas were generated through lively discussions and from 'Me Trees' which the children all drew depicting themselves, their families, hobbies, favourite foods etc.  
 
On the final day of the residency the children showed off their fine new oral storytelling, music and performance skills to fantastic effect to an invited audience of parents, carers and siblings.
 
Their new CD was also exclusively available to purchase - the proceeds of which went to charity.

If you are interested in introducing a similar project at your school or community setting, or finding out more about how Music for Change can help you to programme your multicultural activities and Who Do We Think We Are? ideas, please contact us.
 

Click here to listen to the track recorded by pupils at Lonesome Primary School.

Top

Sing-Up set to record 'In My Shoes' rapsing up logoSingup

In our Autumn newsletter we told you about a successful programme of workshops in schools which took place to mark National Refugee Week 2008 in Kent.  Music for Change worked in 6 primary and secondary schools in Kent in partnership with Migrant Helpline. Artistic expertise was provided by Bosnian former refugee and musician Téa Hodzic and Kent based rapper MC Lethal.

The artists fused their diverse styles to facilitate songwriting and support learning about the experiences of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Over 200 pupils took part in educational workshops to equip them with facts and definitions to help them make up their own minds about the subject and to enable them to question the negative stories that they are exposed to through the media. bhm cover
They used what they learnt as the starting point for writing lyrics, placing themselves in the shoes of an asylum seeker.  The final recorded rap includes voices from all 6 schools.

The project was funded by Sing Up, Music Manifesto's national singing campaign, and we are pleased to announce that the 'In My Shoes' rap has been recognised as a valuable learning tool and will be recorded professionally by Sing Up for teachers to use in schools.


The recorded rap will be accompanied by a set of comprehensive teaching notes.  We are delighted that the inspired lyrics written by Kent school pupils will become nationally used in classrooms.

If you would like to find out how Music for Change can help you to programme your National Refugee Week activities this 15th-21st June then please contact julie_at_musicforchange_dot_org.

Top

Folkestone Extended Schools ask wdwtwa
'Who Do They Think They Are'?

This summer Music for Change will work via Sing Up, the Music Manifesto's national singing campaign, to introduce singing workshops for primary pupils who will perform at events specially programmed and developed by secondary students.

Year 10 students at Pent Valley, Folkestone School for Girls, and Brockhill Park School taking part in the community based learning module will form steering groups to work towards programming events and preparing primary students to contribute in their extended schools hub.

The theme for the events will ultimately be decided by the young persons' steering group, and will be based around the make up of the local community, geography and heritage in Folkestone.

The events will be scheduled to coincide with National Refugee Week (15-21 June 09), and Who Do We Think We Are? week (22-27 June 09), both national calendar events that focus on the diverse make-up of the community.
www.wdwtwa.org.uk
www.refugeeweek.org.uk

Students will be supported by Music for Change artists who will enable them to work with primary school pupils to form vocal performances for the event.

This programme model can be adapted for any extended schools network and encourages older students at a hub school to interact with local primary pupils and childrens' centres whilst gaining valuable project management skills.  If you would like more information about how this model could be introduced in your own extended school area, please contact us.

Top

Sing Up at the Royal Albert Hallalberthall
Royal Albert HallMusic for Change was delighted to be involved in Music for Youth's Schools Prom 2008 at London's highly prestigious Royal Albert Hall in November. As part of our Sing Up East Kent project, MfC commissioned three new choral works by Andrew Larner for Kent Music's Mass Choir.  Five hundred primary school children from across the county worked with Kent Music teachers to learn the songs, culminating in the performance to a packed venue of 3,500 people.

The annual Schools Prom event is the most important annual showcase of musical talent from schools across the country and is the culmination of a country wide annual programme of regional festivals.  Show stopping performances from forty ensembles of various music genres featured throughout the three days, and the show was compared by musician, composer and educator Richard Stilgoe and composer and radio presenter Howard Goodall.
logos

Top
COMMUNITY NEWS
For all Events Information contact Katy at Music for Change on
tel: 01227 459 243, email:
katy_at_musicforchange_dot_org

Sure Start Ashford awash with music!
SureStart
sure start
Sing Up East Kent is working in partnership with Sure Start Ashford to promote singing in the community.  'Sing to Smile' involves weekly community singing on Tuesday evenings, sessions for parents on Wednesday lunchtimes and family sessions on Saturday mornings, and we are aiming to foster a sense of well-being and fun through singing, as well as providing opportunities to explore language through song.

Sure Start Ashford children's centre, The Willow Centre, has also been successful in securing Youth Music 'First Steps' funding, and their new project 'My World of Music' is a partnership between MfC, Kent Music 'Colourstrings' practitioners and early years settings based in the area.  Young children are involved in weekly music sessions and with termly training sessions it is hoped the nursery staff will feel inspired and confident enough to deliver and develop music activities once the funding for the project has finished.    
For information on how to get involved in 'Sing to Smile' please contact Katy as above.

Top

Find Your Talent in ShepwayfindyourtalentFind Your Talent
Music for Change will be working closely with Shepway's Find Your Talent programme (one of ten national pathfinder projects on behalf of the Government trialling different ways of delivering a comprehensive cultural offer to children and young people) over the next couple of months, engaging with young people through creative activities.  We will be finding out what cultural activities they are already involved in, what activities they aren't involved in and the possible reasons for this.
   
In partnership with the Thanet-based Youth Music Action Zone, Pie factory, we will also be organising music activities leading towards an open-to-all event on Sunday 5th April at the new Quarterhouse venue in Folkestone's Creative Quarter for families and young people, so come along and join in with the revival of the popular Club Caramba featuring the London Bulgarian Choir, U'Zambezi, the Sacconi Quartet, and many more!
Contact: katy_at_musicforchange_dot_org

--------------------------------------------
National Find Your Talent News
The Find Your Talent initiative is currently setting up a Young Persons' National Development Group (YPNDG) to advise on the programme.  The group will be made up of approximately 20 young people aged 14-25 and has three key roles: Research, Advisory and Consultancy.

The group will receive free training in consultancy, facilitation, exclusive access to pathfinder programmes, the opportunity to get their voice heard at the highest level, lots of networking opportunities, as well as the chance to influence an industry that they are passionate about.

Recruitment workshops are being held across the country throughout February and FYT are inviting any young person aged 14-25 with an interest in culture to attend.  Travel costs will be reimbursed.
For more information contact Vicky Bell
Young People's Consultant
Tel: 07880 500982
E-mail: victoriabell1_at_googlemail_dot_com
----------------------------------------------
Top

Funding OpportunityFunding
Children and Young People's Minister Beverley Hughes has announced £9 million funding for a new scheme to help young people develop ideas for positive activities - anything from sport to music to art - which they would then deliver in their communities on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is inviting third sector organisations to apply for funding to run the scheme and support the young people involved. Application materials are available on the Youth Sector Development Fund managing body website.

http://ysdf.ecotec.com
http://www.dcsf.gov.u/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0298
The closing date for completed proposals is 13 March 2009.


Top
PROJECT NEWS
For all Projects information contact Donna on tel: 01227 459 243,
email: donna_at_musicforchange_dot_org


Exploring International Development through the Arts

Northfleet girls prefer ethical fashion! ethical

DfIDAs part of the Department for International Development's World Music Matters Project residencies are taking place in schools around a number of development-related themes.

sujataBlack VoicesSujata Banerjee who specialises in Indian Kathak dance, movement and storytelling, and members of the well known vocal harmony group Black Voices will be working with Northfleet girls school to explore issues around ethical fashion.

Kent and the Wider World are also collaborating on the project, introducing the girls to the issues surrounding ethical trading and suggesting resources for research.  The project will culminate in a showcase to visitors from Gravesend Age Concern at the school.

Other related projects include artists exploring children's rights in partnership with Amnesty International trained speakers, and a calypso project with Alexander D Great looking at refugee and migration issues, working with a partner organisation Migrant Helpline.

If schools and community settings would like to explore similar international development issues working alongside Music for Change artists, please contact the education team.  Themes can be adapted to ensure relevancy across the curriculum.

A subsidised INSET is also available as part of the project for schools who would like to arrange a session with teachers addressing how to work with artists to explore themes through the arts. 

For more information contact donna_at_musicforchange_dot_org

Top
EVENT NEWS
For all Events Information contact Julie at Music for Change on
tel: 01227 459 243, email: julie_at_musicforchange_dot_org


rootsroundabout

Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan come to the UK
DhoadGypsies


Music for Change, along with its roots/round/aboutbhm cover partners, are producing a tour in May 2009 by the world renowned Indian artists the Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan (who recently performed for Mick Jagger on the occasion if his 60th birthday).
Described as an authentic and magical experience, the Dhoad's bring to life the passion and epic heroism of their Indian forefathers.  Their musical harmonies and incredible feats transform the monotony of everyday life with the enchanting sounds of the Indian desert, and their live show includes fire-eating, walking on nails and dancing on swords and broken glass! The heritage they have bequeathed is spiritual, artistic and musical, and has inspired a way of life in which love, happiness, suffering and death are all expressed through song.
The tour takes in 9 shows across the region and London. The band also undertake educational work and Music for Change will be offering them to schools in the UK for special workshop performances and discussion sessions. Should your school be interested in hosting a workshop, please email: mark_at_musicforchange_dot_org
.

Top

Safe Unsubscribe
This email was sent to j_dot_b_dot_w_dot_webber_at_kent_dot_ac_dot_uk by julie_at_musicforchange_dot_org.
Music for Change | 19b Roper Close | Canterbury | Kent | CT2 7EP | United Kingdom