Proiect de parteneriat strategic în domeniul școlar în cadrul programului ERASMUS+ cu titlul "Building a European Orchestra" number 2015-1-IT02-KA219-014886_3 Project Summary Music is considered a universal language because it transcends to all race regardless of any language barrier. Music can communicate effectively to all men around the world and can help Europeans to know each other better overcoming "mental borders" in people s minds (national, linguistic, cultural, historical, etc.). This project, titled "Building a European Orchestra" involves an exchange between three music high schools from Italy, Lithuania and Romania. The aim is not only to share music teaching methods and strategies, but especially to compare and finally merge the orchestras of the respective high schools from all countries. The orchestras will play some music pieces separately and finally they will be put together to play as one the pieces of music closing the final concert (presumably the European anthem and, in Italy, the "Va, pensiero" from Verdi's "Nabucco"). Of course this will happen as a result of a previous proper training activity! This cooperation will enrich the knowledge, the skills and the attitudes of the participants. They will learn to appreciate the benefits of international cooperation, to overcome language and cultural barriers. They will improve their music skills and learn how to use modern communication tools. The participating schools will also acquire the know-how to set up future international projects. The students of the music high school of Nuoro are geographically and socially disadvantaged. Their families cannot support them financially to enable them to participate in contests and meetings outside the island in order to relate and compare themselves to other high schools musical. This project aims to get them out of isolation and help them to learn about different realities, especially in countries that have different methods and strategies of teaching and a longer tradition of teaching music. Klaipeda Conservatory has a very long teaching music tradition, students hold a lot of concerts but mostly they play in Lithuania, because trips abroad are too expensive. Students from Romania have never participated in international projects. This project will give them the chance to perform abroad and collaborate with other countries. Of course, this exchange will enrich all the participating partners. All students and most of the staff of all schools will be involved in the project. Cooperation and communication will be established via modern means of communication (etwinning, e-mail, Skype, etc.) and via the meetings. All communications will be made in English.
The first meeting is a preparatory visit that will take place in Romania in October 2015. During this meeting the teachers will choose the musical pieces and the corresponding music sheets to be adapted to the skills of the members of the orchestras, in order to prepare the training activities and the concerts that will be held during the meetings in Lithuania (May 2016), Romania (October 2016), Italy (May 2017). The final product of the project will be a DVD with the recording (audio and video) of the concerts to be distributed to the students, their families, other schools in the area, libraries and to anyone who requests it. The rehearsals for the concerts could be also filmed and kept in the schools as a testimony to the progress the orchestras will made from the beginning till the end of the project. The impact on the students will be very large: for most of them it will be the first time to have firsthand encounters with students from another country, they will learn and improve a comprehensive range of key skills and will also develop their social graces, friendliness, reliability and adaptability. Staff will benefit from the opportunity of an international work, experiencing different teaching styles, transferring skills from a country to another, raising standards across the curriculum. A Web site or/and a Facebook account will be opened to gather all relevant information about the project and to share impressions about its evolution. The project results will be disseminated to a maximum number of people: the students, the staff, their families, the school community, the audience at large. The final product of the project, a DVD, will be promote via the projects websites and the e- twinning platform. The concerts will be widely advertised and guests including school governors, local councillors, parents and staff will be invited. The project will be promoted in each school's transition document given to prospective parents and at open evenings. All schools will issue press releases to the media they consider most appropriate. At the end of the project, the partner schools will remain in contact to work together and exchange good practises, music sheets, etc. [A1] September 2015: Implementation Before the project activities take place, all schools will inform all the staff and the students about the project. With the headmasters approval, they will form the project team and distribute the tasks. Criteria for selecting the students will be established by the project team and announced in schools. Introduction of partners, contacts via e-mail/ etwinning will take place to prepare the teachers meeting.
In order to have enough material to work with during the preparatory meeting, music teachers from each school will collect a range of musical pieces to be performed during the concerts-meetings and begin to select some music sheets. A teacher (or a team of teachers) responsible for evaluation from each country will elaborate evaluation tools to be discussed during the teachers meeting. [M1] October 2015: The first international meeting will take place in Romania. It is a preparatory visit during which the teachers from all schools will establish a detailed timetable for the whole project. They will also choose the musical pieces and the corresponding music sheets to be adapted to the skills of the members of the orchestras, in order to prepare the training activities and the three concerts that will be held during the following meetings. The Italian coordinator will provide scores for the European Anthem and the "Va, pensiero". Teachers will also agree on evaluation tools. [A2] November 2015 Creation of the website/ facebook page/twinspace; selection of students participating to the project. [A3] December 2015/January 2016 Logo competition. Students create the project logos and they vote for the best ones in each country. 6 finalist logos will be chosen (2 for each country), the most voted one becomes the project logo (during the final competition students can't vote for a logo from their own country). [A4] February/March/April 2016 Creation of a word list concerning music in English and all the languages of the countries participating to the project. Rehearsals to prepare the first concert-meeting. [C1] May 2016 The 1 concert-meeting and training activity will take place in Lithuania. After a few days of training activities, a concert will be held: the three orchestras will play separately at first 3/4 pieces of music each; then they will join to play together the final piece of music, that will presumably be the European Anthem. The concert will be filmed. [A5] June 2016
[A6] September 2016 Rehearsals to prepare the second concert-meeting. [C2] October 2016 The 2 concert-meeting and training activity will take place in Romania. After a few days of training activities, a concert will be held: the orchestras will play separately at first 3/4 pieces of music each; then they will join to play together the final piece of music. The concert will be filmed. [A5] November/ Dicember 2016 [A7] January/ February/ March/ April 2017 Teaching/learning activities to prepare music sheets with appropriate softwares (Finale or Sybelius). Rehearsals to prepare the last concert-meeting. [C3] May 2017 The 3 and last concert-meeting and training activity will take place in Italy. After a few days of training activities, a concert will be held: the three orchestras will play separately at first 3/4 pieces of music each; then they will join to play together two final pieces of music, that will presumably be the European Anthem and the "Va, pensiero" from Verdi's "Nabucco". The concert will be filmed for the creation of the final DVD. [A8] June 2017 Evaluation and dissemination activities. Final DVD production. The 1, 2, 3 concert-meetings will follow the same basic structure (not necessarily in that order): - 1st day: welcome activities (presentation of the hosting country/school, of the people (teachers, students) involved, speeches by school direction, by the mayor, etc.); training activities. - 2nd day: excursion (a day of excursion will be planned to allow the guests to visit the welcoming area/region).
- 3rd day: training activities - 4th day: training activities - 5th day: concert and eventually meeting on evaluation/planning of the next mobility. Project Management and Implementation: All countries will have tasks considering management and implementation. This concerns the practical organisation of lodging, transport, etc., the official part and the eventual excursions. But schools will also need technical support concerning ICT, taking care of musical instruments and they will need an expert who will film and edit the concerts. The hosting country will provide the material necessary to realize the rehearsals and the concerts (mixer, cables, microphones etc.). The coordinating country will have to coordinate the orchestras, monitor all activities planned and be ready to solve possible problems.