A new music workshop aims to expose young people to diverse cultures. Gisèle Grima tells Veronica Stivala how these can promote understanding and tolerance of cultural and religious diversity.

There’s a new music workshop in town and it’s quite unlike any other we’ve seen in Malta for a while. The aim behind the Diversitarte Music Montage Workshops is for children of different nationalities and backgrounds to integrate with one another and learn about other cultures.

I speak with musician and music educator Gisèle Grima, who will be running the workshops starting in October, together with SOS Malta. The project is definitely a timely one and comes in the wake of many manifestations of intolerance towards others of different cultures in Malta.

“The idea,” says Gisèle, “is to bring together children of different nationalities, cultures and languages and to offer them opportunities to learn about new cultures and to meet and interact with new friends of different backgrounds.”

Through music and singing, this idea of interculturalism will be projected in such a way as to indirectly promote understanding and tolerance of cultural and religious diversity. It is also a way of instilling an appreciation of other cultures for the children to learn about.

By sharing on their experiences and backgrounds, Gisèle hopes to educate children to be empathetic towards such a diverse group. She elaborates on this point, noting how “while individual countries have their own cultural and festive traditions, the element of inter-culturalism also enriches a society and carries many positive trends. So what better way to explore all of this through music and singing?”

The organisers aim to have a group of some 10 to 25 participants and I am curious to find out their plan of targeting this diverse group of people. Gisèle says how this rests on the very nature of our islands’ varied population. In recent years, Malta’s population has changed and has seen a number of growing foreign communities settling here.

“We are hoping that the applications will include different nationalities and we have approached various organisations and institutions to help us with this,” she says. As long as participants conform to the proposed age frame (seven to 13 years), all children of any nationality are welcome but they do have a limited number of places. The more nationalities, the more interesting the workshops will be.

The workshops are designed around the exploration of different cultures. This will include the ideas of festivities and important traditions that are central to many cultures.

Children will be offered the chance to learn and sing songs in different languages from around the world. The approach will be holistic and will enrich the learning experience through cultural and language appreciation and the discovery of traditions including musical styles, dancing and vocal interpretations relevant to different cultures.

Gisèle underlines how, behind all the music and songs, lie some very enlightening messages about discipline and morals, which add to the educational aspect of the workshops.

They specifically invite foreign children who are new to Malta and who may need opportunities to get involved and be included within the community

Apart from singing, the children will also have the opportunity to learn about traditional African and South-American instruments, some of which they will have access to. Instrumental playing will be utilised within the songs as well as through separate activities. The learning of different rhythms and their meaning to specific cultures will also be explored.

Interestingly, participants will not necessarily need any musical background. Gisèle underlines how we do not need to understand music notation to understand and appreciate it. Moreover, we are all equipped with a “precious instrument”, our voice, which, she says, is sometimes neglected in the teaching of music.

“For me, the voice is the most natural of instruments and all musicians must utilise their voices throughout their training and teaching,” Gisèle says. Even as pianist, she sings phrases as she practises to understand the phrasing of the music. When we use our voice we recognise certain nuances in the music. This pianist hopes to create a conscious awareness of this through the workshops and ultimately to instil enjoyment in singing together as a group.

Ultimately, Gisèle wishes for the children to adopt a multi-dimensional approach which they will hopefully carry on to develop. Apart from that, there are certain performance targets which will see the children showcasing their work in progress. The organisers also intend to invite the parents of these children to join in some workshops occasionally throughout the year.

This will encourage adults to share in the fun and inevitably to socialise within a multicultural group through music. Every workshop will be different in one way or another and each session will offer something new.

The Music Montage Workshops are open to any children who enjoy music or would like to try something new.

They also and specifically invite foreign children who are new to Malta and who may need opportunities to get involved and be included within the community.

The Diversitarte Music Montage Workshops run from October to June 2016. The workshops will be held weekly in Valletta (venue, day and time to be confirmed) on a weekday.

For more details contact Lorna Muscat, SOS Malta Project Manager, lorna.muscat@sosmalta.org or call SOS Malta on 2133 5097.