Music and art not only help children develop their own self-esteem, they also help children open up to different cultures David Schembri discovers as he speaks to the people behind Womad’s Maltese school outreach.

It’s the balmy evening of a public holiday, and down at the Bridge Bar in Valletta, the beats of an African drum, the drone of a didgeridoo and the rhythm of a Jewish harp throb as a female voice sings.

Music as a meeting point between people – and cultures – is one of the key tenets of Womad and of Ipercussonici

Sometime later, a trombonist tunes up and joins in, later to be joined by a Jamaican MC. This unlikely ensemble had a coherent explanation – Womad was in town.

Started by former Genesis singer Peter Gabriel, Womad – which stands for World Of Music Arts and Dance – has two sides to it: a festival celebrating world music, and a foundation which promotes world music and arts as a way to understand other cultures.

In our case, it’s the Womad foundation we’re dealing with, which, together with St James Cavalier, has been touring round schools over Malta and Gozo with interactive music, dance and arts workshops.

The day after the public holiday, the Sicilian world music group Ipercussonici was rehearsing in the music room in St James. Earlier that day, they had been to a school in Żurrieq, where they had led pupils there in a music workshop. At first, they report, the students were quite subdued, but by the last time the festive spirit had erupted and the kids were having a ball.

Carlo, the percussionist, was impressed by the way schools are organised in Malta: “The schools here appear to be well-organised and equipped to deal with this sort of thing. It’s also great to have a framework such as St James Cavalier, through which schools are not isolated from each other and the world.”

The day after, in fact, Ipercussonici would connect to a school in Italy and have pupils in Malta play along with their Italian counterparts.

It’s not all about banging on drums, however – there are more reasons for this project than meet the eye.

Luca, the Jewish harp player, and one of Ipercussonici’s founding members sings the praises of the effect music has on development: “Not only does music help in the development of the logical brain, but playing music in a group also helps children improve their listening and their ability to work with other people later on in life.”

Music as a meeting point between people – and cultures – is one of the key tenets of Womad and of Ipercussonici. “We do not play our instruments just because we like their sound – we learn about and respect the culture and the context within which they are played. But just because we’re not of that culture, it doesn’t mean that we can’t play our instruments well. Nowadays, it’s possible for a Sicilian man to play African drums and do it well,” Carlo says.

“What we do is use music as a meeting point of cultures in sound,” Luca says. This also extends to involving the audience as much as possible, as happened with their performance at the Bridge Bar, where the audience was asked to chant an old Sicilian tune as the band grooved along.

The lack of demarcation between performers and audience is also key to Ipercussonici’s modus operandi, and Luca sees this as a way of keeping the music fresh and relevant over time: “Each performance is like a ritual – every time it’s different, but every time it’s the same.”

This involvement is quite transformative. Mandy Adams, who coordinates Womad’s education programmes, was struck by how children’s behaviour progressed during Ipercussonici’s workshop, with the kids starting out as “really timid” but loosening up when they realised that this was a disciplined process in which they could still have fun.

“It’s opening their eyes that there’s more they could be doing with their lives.”

Through the workshops, the Womad team has found that by presenting different cultures through art and music, stereotypes have been dismantled.

“Teaching lullabies from different African countries to children in schools has helped combat the stereotype that Africa is a country, not a continent. One memorable quote came from a teacher, who said she would never think of African culture as primitive again following one of our workshops,” Annie Menter, an executive at Womad, and a frequent visitor to Malta, says.

“The work we do is about opening doors. People can then look through and see what’s on the other side,” Adams says.

Ipercussonici weren’t alone: also taking part were the transatlantic brass group Brassroots, Zimbabwean group Siyaya, British visual artists Malarky and Shona Watt, Jamaican dancer and singer Ripton Lindsay and British electronic musician Dave Watts, who went round schools all over Malta leading workshops.

Womad’s Malta residency would not have been possible without the framework provided by St James Cavalier, and Adams and Menter hope the partnership will last beyond the final march pupils and artists had in Valletta last Sunday.

In fact, about 8,000 students every year take part in activities and workshops organised by St James Cavalier, which cover not only art, music and drama, but also politics and science.

Apart from engaging students in a different context to the classroom, the programmes, particularly in drama, bring about a positive change in students.

Apart from nurturing artistic and creative talent, these workshops have a knock-on effect on other aspects of students’ lives, Amanda Palmier, St James Cavalier’s school programmes coordinator reports.

“Drama workshops, in particular, increase self-esteem, which is one of the most important things they’ll learn in life.”

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