Fresh from celebrating their fifth birthday party at the start of the month, Lucy Maguire (Founder & Director, Nucleo Project) & 12 members of London’s Nucleo Project flew to Istanbul in February to meet up with their Turkish counterparts at Barış için Müzik.
Watch the Nucleo Project's fifth anniversary concert in February.
Click here if you cannot see/hear the video.
A week with Barış için Müzik
The Nucleo Project players spent a whole week practising and making friends/reacquainting themselves with familiar faces in the Barış için Müzik team, before the trip culminated in a concert involving 110 musicians aged between five and 16.
During their time in Turkey, the Young England Youth Leader, Simi Ambass, was particularly impressed by the way in which Barış İçin Müzik espoused youth ownership and youth leadership and he left Turkey inspired, with lasting friendships and a series of memorable moments to cherish.
Last week was a fantastic one for The Nucleo Project, being able to play side-by-side with their fellow family orchestra Barış İçin Müzik in Istanbul, Turkey!
I was lucky enough to be invited by The Nucleo Project to join a group of 12 Nucleo musicians flying to Istanbul to visit their Sistema family, meeting faces old and new, experiencing the city and joining together to play some great pieces like Sol di Manha, The Hallelujah Chorus & the Nucleo classic Stand by Me.
What I took away from the experience were the many examples of youth ownership and leadership taking place in the Turkish orchestra, such as the advanced players mentoring and teaching the younger and less experienced players, small chamber groups popping up within the orchestra which were led by motivated and passionate players that want to achieve more, older musicians who have developed through the orchestra going on to teach lessons to kids at primary school and more, all to reach their common goal - to become outstanding musicians and play great quality music.
The week was led by Sistema England conductors Samuel Matus and Félix Briceño (Felix has been one of Young Leaders’ Musical Directors since 2015) and our very own Lucy Maguire and topped off by a joint concert between the two projects at the Ibrahim Betil Auditorium in Istanbul.
Overall, our trip to Turkey was amazing, consisting of memorable moments, long-lasting friendships, inspiring youth leadership and fantastic music.
P.s. If you thinks that’s all, remember, SEYO 2018 is just around the corner…
Simi Ambass, Sistema England Young Leader
Playing together
At the concert itself, both Barış için Müzik and the Nucleo Project’s achievements were highlighted in a series of videos and introductory speeches (see video below) which looked back at the first years of both programmes.
Watch the Nucleo Project and Barış için Müzik play together in Istanbul!
The video on Barış için Müzik includes English subtitles from 0:23 - to read the subtitles make the video full size & play it in HD.
Going forwards
And, this concert was far from the end of Barış için Müzik and the Nucleo Project’s time together. While the last notes signalled the end of this particular concert, they heralded the start of a year full of cooperation between these two Sistema groups, with SEYO 2018 on the horizon and mutual visits and cooperative projects planned between both the children and the trainers as the year progresses.
We hope you enjoy watching the videos and sharing in the celebration. And, of course, we wish the Nucleo Project a very happy birthday year and hope that they and Barış için Müzik will have plenty more opportunities to play and spend time together, building ever closer bonds across, within and beyond Europe.
Photos from the concert in Istanbul
All photos © Emre Mollaoğlu
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