Is Germany a bit too elitist about classical music?

Hellgurd and Emmy wrote about how music is not always appreciated in Kenyan and Iraqi society. They made me think of an ironic quip from my former music teacher: “Yeah, I know, I’m only teaching a subsidiary subject of the lowest level.” But regardless of what he said, he’s a very dedicated teacher, who prepares school concerts and makes music himself.

Though I liked my teacher, I was frustrated by his music lessons. Since I didn’t play an instrument myself, my first time reading notes outside of a church service was during my music lessons with this teacher. I got the difference between high and low sounds, but defining triads?! It was all Greek to me. I guess I probably didn’t open up to his lessons and thus failed my first tests in music. I just didn’t get it. Why couldn’t we just sing a song together? Wasn’t that what music lessons were about?!

Looking back, I guess it was difficult for me to accept not understanding anything in a subject. I was just unable to cope with that situation. And our teacher’s comment that music was only a subsidiary subject of the lowest level pretty much reflected my and my parents’ own attitudes. I wouldn’t have taken it in stride if I had failed an English or a math test – and my parents wouldn’t have either.

I’m of the opinion that music lessons should be more practical at schools here. It would be fantastic if all kids had the opportunity to learn an instrument during their time at school. Private music lessons are very expensive – and particularly families with little money or little interest in music will probably prefer to spend their money differently. But if I go to school for 13 years, it should be possible to teach me at least one instrument, shouldn’t it?

Well, I haven't forgotten everything...

I remember that we had the possibility to play the flute in the afternoon as part of extracurricular activities in primary school. And if I remember correctly, my mother was of the opinion that I already had enough hobbies. Later, when I was old enough to have been able to decide myself, we didn’t have that possibility at school anymore. Yes, of course, I could have looked for ways outside of school. But why should I have to look beyond school if I want to play the piano – but not if I want to learn rhyme schemes or chemical formulas?

By not teaching instruments in regular classes at most schools, there is a clear value judgment. A certain basis of education is offered to everybody at school, but the message is that music isn’t for all. That classical music is somewhat elitist isn’t only apparent when taking a look at those who send their children to private music lessons, but also when going to classical concerts: Everybody is dressed up stiffly, most are older than 60 years, and the audience generally has little to do with the average citizen. Yet, German state orchestras are also paid by taxes. I think more efforts should be taken to take away the awe – and sometimes rejection – involved in classical concerts, and to introduce pupils to music as a cultural good and a medium of expressing oneself.

Conductor Paul MacAlindin and a soloist

As I promised in my last entry, I did an interview over the Internet with NYOI’s musical director Paul MacAlindin, from Scotland and now living in Cologne, Germany.

– Mr. MacAlindin, how has the NYOI’s music improved academically since the orchestra’s founding?
Paul MacAlindin: Arab, Kurdish and classical music have systems that need to be internalized before you can really connect your soul with sound. The war and a generally negative perception of the arts has kept people from learning those systems. However, no one can prevent that part of the human brain which exists only to make music from finding a way to express itself. So young Iraqis have found their way intuitively to making music through difficult times. Music has become a comfort, a barrier against the chaos and violence. The Internet has replaced teachers.

NYOI brings teachers into Iraq to coach young players. We do this in a very intense course, which shows players what’s possible when they are given a chance. Those teachers who left Iraq during the invasion may never come back, but we have given those that are courageous enough to stay hope that they can get real support, now and in future.

Sustained conflict conditions people to be helpless, afraid and focused on survival, even when war is over. NYOI players and friends have set up their own projects to start challenging that mentality, and learn empowerment. I believe that some of the current good practice in Iraq is directly and indirectly inspired by NYOI courses. NYOI players are already teaching what they’ve learnt from our tutors.

– What needs to be done or to be changed in the Iraqi musical schools?

Simply, a respectful dialogue with musicians outside Iraq; perhaps allowing a young teacher to come and work there for 6 months, or a visiting ensemble to be allowed to do a short residency.  Fundamentally, music brings people together. That can only happen when people feel safe enough to do so, and when they do, they create demand for more performances and better teaching.

Only then can musicians discuss what they need, and who to work with. At the heart of every musician’s success is mobility, and whether going to the next village or the next continent, is absolutely necessary.

Paul MacAlindin and I in Arbil

– What sounds strange when you try to make room for classical music inside people’s minds in the East? And how difficult is that at this moment?

If we’re discussing orchestral music, that’s easy because it’s already everywhere: film sound tracks, advertisements, hotel foyers, pop music all over the world. Kurdish and Arab music continually mixes clarinets, violins, cellos, flutes with traditional instruments, creating mixed orchestras. Do people really want to listen to a whole concert of orchestral music in silence? A lot of people in the West can’t even do that. But again, live music of all kinds, traditional or orchestral, brings people together, and doing so again and again creates the fabric of society, creating emotions and ideas instead of conflict.

– What you would like to say in closing?

A friend of mine, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who wrote NYOI a piece last year, said that a place doesn’t really exist if no one is performing music about it. The choice is to continue living in fear, half alive, or to allow your home to flourish with music.

Click here to head to the NYOI YouTube Channel.

Rehearsing with the NYOI at the Beethovenfest in Bonn

After the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq was founded by 17-year-old female Iraqi pianist Zuhal Sultan in 2009, we saw much better progress among Iraq’s young musicians. Every year the Orchestra has its own courses in the summers, usually in July or August, with many great orchestral tutors coming from all over the world to Kurdistan. The orchestra usually contains 45 to 50 players – Kurds and Arabs – without restricting itself to any single nationality, religion or culture. It’s hard to bring this many different groups together in one country, but on stage, the orchestra could do just that. That is the power of music, which can bring people together despite their differences.

The musicians come from all over Iraq. They are accepted after applying and doing their auditions via the Internet. Fortunately there’s not any difference between males and females. Everybody between the age of 14 to 30 can apply. When they get together, you see happy faces and feel a great sense of hope from them. They forget all the challenges they’ve gone through to get to this point.

The orchestra is like a very good musical school for the young Iraqi musicians who’re able to apply every year. However, it does take approximately a month out of the year of their time to apply. And there’s no rule that they have to stop improving their musical abilities even if they aren’t chosen by the orchestra’s musical director. They’ll just try to make more progress for next year.

Since it was founded, the orchestra has performed every year in various cities across Kurdistan. Last year, they even had the chance to travel abroad to Germany and participate in the Beethovenfest, Bonn (www.beethovenfest.de). That was a good opportunity and became a great turning point for the orchestra, introducing it to the world at large. In my view, it led some to have a different identification with Iraq and showed another beautiful side of Iraq to the world. Hopefully we will have many other opportunities to travel abroad as an orchestra. At the moment, we are preparing to travel to the UK and take part in Edinburgh Festival Fringe (www.edfringe.com).

The orchestra provides many different things for the musicians during rehearsals. One of the most interesting things for me are the conducting classes, presented by the orchestra’s musical director Paul MacAlindin. He’s a Scottish conductor who has lived in Cologne for about ten years, and he has worked with the orchestra since the beginning. I’ll do an interview with him for a blog entry soon, because I want you to know what a Western musician thinks about the orchestra and its effectiveness.

Grabbing a snack together in Arbil

For me personally, the orchestra was a gateway to great opportunities. I applied in the second year after it was started – not the first. After I went to some conducting classes, I got some good knowledge on conducting. So after that I created a much bigger orchestra in my town from the students of the Ranya Institute of Fine Arts. It’s been very great for me that I can be a member of such a great orchestra, and meanwhile I can give the useful knowledge I got from it to the students.

Every year the orchestra gets more and more applicants. For instance, the first year the orchestra had 5 members from my town. In the second year, 10 members. The third year brought 12 members, and this year is also 12 members. It obviously has good potential.

Here is a link:

Kenya's job market is taking some twists and turns

Last time, I wrote about how the competition in the job market in Kenya is getting stiffer by the day. More and more people now have master’s degrees, for example. The question is: Where does that leave those who cannot afford to climb the education ladder that high?

There are other options. One can go to a tertiary college. I have several cousins and other relatives who did not have the finances to go on to university once they finished high school, even though they had worked hard enough to get grades that would have been sufficient for entering a university.
So the next best place for them was a polytechnic or a college, which usually require two years of study to earn a certificate or a diploma. I recognize that other countries may have a different meaning for diploma. For us, the PhD is regarded as the highest educational level, then the master’s degree, then the bachelor’s, then a diploma and, at the bottom, is a certificate.

Those with just a diploma cannot compete for the same jobs as people with a master’s. Needless to say, most of my cousins did not stand much of a chance at a white-collar job. Most of them resorted to starting a business or farming, which is also a viable option. The girls mostly got married off.

But for those who want to attend university, there are other options for financing education such as government loans and bursaries from the state – including from local governments. I received a government loan, which I am still repaying. The funds offered are usually sufficient to pay for fees in a state university with just enough left over as pocket money.

What happens in this system is that the space for creativity and for nurturing talent in areas like art and music is almost non-existent – a problem different from the one Hellgurd discussed in Iraq.  That is because studying these fields is not regarded as education! Parents generally frown on their children if they say that they would like to be musicians or artists when they grow up.

There are a few people who have had an education in music, art, drama or similar areas, but people tend to consider that as involving talent and entertainment – not education.

Personally, I think it’s important to find a balance between what one is good at, where one’s strengths lie and what puts food on the table.

Lana playing in a Ranya Symphony Orchestra concert

Once you’re in your fifth year of studies to become a teacher in Iraq, you start training in a primary school or a kindergarten. It takes about forty days, and on some of them, your professors come to the class and evaluate your teaching. When they’re there, it’s important to give an exam that shows off your abilities and what have you learned during those five years.

It can be confusing because we’re expected to be both good teachers at the primary level and good artists. I guess that would work if we could teach what we had learned, but we can’t. Artistic knowledge and theory still aren’t part of the basic curriculum in schools. Plus our professors don’t follow any set curriculum, and there’s not a settled method for approaching music like there is in other subjects. So that leads to some misunderstandings between the institute’s management and education ministry. They need to clarify what they want from us. The ministry asks the institute to produce teachers, but the institute wants us to be both teachers and artists without having a good curriculum for combining the two.

I talked with two of my friends about their studies at the arts institute we attended. Lana, a 22-year-old flutist who graduated in 2010, started by saying that in the first two years she was very happy that her family didn’t stop her from coming to the institute and studying her dream subject, music. But she got bored by the time she was a third year student. She was expecting something other than what she got.

“I have no idea why should I study so many extra subjects. Do I need to learn my native language if I want to be a flute player?” she said in surprise.

She also talked to me about the training she did at a kindergarten.

“I had to do everything for the kids: Play music for them, be a storyteller, take them out for recess and whatever else the management required. I had no problem doing all of that, even though it wasn’t really my job. I felt really satisfied that the kids liked me to be everything for them,” Lana said.

Lana taking part in a sporting event in the kindergarten where she worked

Now she’s a member of the Ranya Symphony Orchestra, and she certainly doesn’t have any problems with her native language when the conductor is talking, she told me with a laugh.

I talked to another girl who didn’t want me to mention her name or any other personal information. She said that her family reluctantly agreed she could study music. But when she was asked to travel to another city for a concert for school, her parents got angry and didn’t let her go.

“That was a very hard moment for me, but I had no choice. I pretended to be sick and said I couldn’t play the concert. My family has always prevented me from taking part in musical activities. That’s why I could not make much progress with my studies. I graduated with very low marks, but despite that, I was almost happy that the institute’s directors showed some consideration for me,” she told me sadly.

As artists, we are happy that we can present art to people and gradually introduce them to ways of understanding it, but we still have work to do in supporting women who are interested in art and music.