About Session
INTERCULTURAL CHOIR WORB
Public rehearsal & short project presentation
Since we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, and we don’t know the past of others, the moment of encounter in the “now” is central. Our choir brings people together, regardless of whether they live in an asylum center in the region, were born here, or have moved here. When we sing together, a very unique kind of polyphony emerges.
A choir that connects people with a refugee story and people without, people with singing experience and people without, different generations and nationalities through music.
About the impact and work with singing in an intercultural field.
For 5 years now I work in the field of intercultural encounter in music and theatre. I am a board member of the association «Musikvermittlung Schweiz» and founded the «Interkultureller Chor Worb». A choir that connects people with a refugee story and people without, people with singing experience and people without, different generations and nationalities through music.
The weekly practises takes place in the SRK Kollektivunterkunft Worb, a refugee center in a village near Bern and is free for all participants. I would like to present this form of singing pedagogy, the concept of this special choir, the theme of intercultural encounter and how to build up a similar project. I would love the society to benefit more of projecs like the intercultural choir Worb and give insights in my method, concept, build up, difficulties and benefits.
It’s very important to me and my work that I invite people of the choir to participate in the search or repertoire, the mediation of songs in the group such as pronounciation work in the different languages we sing in. Our repertoire meanwhile contents songs in kurmanj, turkish, zazaki, arabic, french, italian, german, swiss german and Farsi.
In addition to singing exercises and repertoire we also do exercises from field of theatre pedagogy and dance traditional dances of several countries. 2024 we did over 10 concerts around Bern and collaborated with other choirs of the music school and different organisations and churches.
Many newspapers and the radio were interested in our choir and it’s possible to find articles and radio contributions online.
I see a big chance for both singing teachers and the society to profit from projects like these as a working opportunity, build bridges in society through singing and contribute to a working multicultural living situation.
