–Very exciting! Not only is this an introduction to new instruments and a relatively unknown music genre for the kids, but it implements a totally different way of learning music, head of project in Rogaland county, Ståle Birkeland, says. At the same time students at two major schools in Delhi get the opportunity to go deeper into Norwegian music.
During a couple of hectic weeks in March, the three Indian musicians Sunanda Sharma, Mukesh Sharma og Jai Shankar will visit the places Sauda, Suldal and Hjelmeland. The professional musicians will give school concerts in daytime, and teach music students in the evenings. This will end up in three family concerts.
-This project is going to be useful both to the kids and to the grown up Norwegian music teachers, because the Indian musicians have a different pedagogical basis. While the Norwegian students are used to reading music, the Indian musicians teach by ear. I’m excited to see how the students deal with that! Birkeland says.
New project
The tour in Ryfylke is part of a new cooperation project between The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Concerts Norway, Spic Macay in India, Rogaland county and the Stavanger University. The main goal is that music students and children get the chance to go deeper into classic Indian music. The same happens in India, where students at two major schools in Delhi will immerse themselves in Norwegian music. The next couple of years a number of Norwegian musicians are going to visit the two schools. The musicians will work closely together with selected groups of students, before the students show what they have learnt in concerts together with the musicians.
-We do this because we wish to involve the young ones in both countries in processes where they feel what it is like to work with a different culture. The hope is that this can make them curious and excited about cultures different from their own, Kjell Thoreby, head of project in Concerts Norway.
The Norwegian music students will be taught how to play sarod and tabla, as well as to sing classic Indian vocal. From the Stavanger University, seven students in Indian classic music and dance will take part in the project as assistants as well as dance instructors.
Cross-cultural study
At the same time professor Jan Sverre Knudsen from the Oslo University College now starts his pilot research project titled: The cross-cultural concert experience - Music promotion for children and young people in Norway and India. Knudsen wants to study in what way intercultural concert experiences affect children, based on the projects in both India and Norway.