What can happen when you mix classical music with jazz, Western, African, and Eastern music together? One will get something new, and quite different, according to participants in the Bridges musical project in Frankfurt, central Germany.
"I've always liked to learn the music of other cultures because they tell a lot of stories," says fluteist Joanna-Leonor Dahloff, one of two directors of the project, which was launched in 2016 to bring together German musicians and refugees from around the world to promote and spread the values of tolerance and coexistence. Which we do not know about the peoples. "
"This is integration on an equal footing," says the culture official, Anke Karin Mir. "Because when musicians train and play with Germans, the refugees not only get help from their hosts, but they also offer something valuable to those who have a passion for music Other cultures.
This is one of the reasons why the project finally won the "Special Influence Award" from the German KfW Stiftung Foundation, which is worth 45,000 euros ($ 52,000) and is awarded to projects that support the integration of refugees into society.
"The award supports pioneering projects that offer solutions to the pressing challenges facing the community," says Bernd Ziegfried, Executive Director of the Foundation. In particular, KFW Stiftung supports projects that can be relocated to other parts of Germany and seeks initiatives that benefit Germans and refugees as a key element of Gesor.
Organizing music together is a learning process for all participants, although most are highly qualified musicians, or at least high-level amateur, organizers say. According to Dahloff, putting different patterns together creates something new "that would not have existed otherwise." She explains that the project supports a total of nine groups, each of which includes "Germans, refugees, and safe immigrant origins."
Dalhov and two of her colleagues, one of them a rhythmist named Mirwais Nida, and his parents from Afghanistan to Germany in the 1980s. Nida participated for the first time in the "Jiswar" project, when he was asked to work as an interpreter for another musician from Afghanistan. The musician could not come on time, and Nida had a drum with him, and it was a great opportunity to participate. Nida holds an Afghan musical heritage, as well as his birthplace in Germany.
The third fellow, who plays alongside Dalhov and Nida, is called Bejman Jamibanah, who worked as a radio artist when he learned that the Gesour project was looking for musicians.
"Whether we are Germans or Africans, music is our language, we are introducing new music," Jamibanah says. Those who do not have access to formal music training can participate in monthly workshops in different places in Frankfurt where people are encouraged to bring in machines and improvise. It has reached the project «bridges» to form a band. "We would like to have a long-term orchestra," says Dahloff.