PRESS RELEASE – COMUNICATO STAMPA – PRESSEMITTEILUNG – COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE

Reconnecting Symphonies is a new 360° documentary which explores how music transforms the lives of refugee children as they create bonds with aspiring young musicians from across Europe.

SEYO17 in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, ©Ángel Ballesteros

Athens --- Back on 6th November 2016, a few children gathered in front of a container at the Skaramagkas Refugee Camp on the outskirts of Athens, waiting for their first ever music class to begin. They were about to attend a course provided by El Sistema Greece, a project that provides free music education to children and young people from underprivileged social backgrounds. After nine months, hours of tireless work with local teachers and several visits by international classical music stars, such as Joyce DiDonato, these same children then took to the stage in the sold-out Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheatre, where they performed alongside hundreds of young musicians from sixteen Sistema and Sistema-inspired structures from all around Europe.

Their remarkable journey can now be retraced in Reconnecting Symphonies, a new 360° documentary directed by the Spanish photojournalist and film-maker Ángel Ballesteros. Through his lens, the film uncovers the new face of Europe: refugee children from the Middle East practise Beethoven, Brahms or Dvořák alongside young students from across the whole continent, creating a new community of belonging regardless of origin, religion or ethnicity. Music improves the children's wellbeing and their participation in the Sistema network helps them to develop their ability to work in a team.

Launched in September 2016, El Sistema Greece exists to help children from underprivileged and underserved backgrounds, living in the country’s most challenged areas. The initiative – which is part of the UNHCR's #WithRefugees coalition - has now expanded to five locations in and around Athens and offers free orchestra and choir classes to refugee and migrant children as well as to local youth, aiming to empower underprivileged children through music.

SEYO17 at the Skaramagkas Refugee Camp, ©Ángel Ballesteros

Working with Greek teachers and collaborating with local communities and NGOs, El Sistema Greece regularly hosts world-renowned artists and teachers and its students have already performed with the likes of Joyce DiDonato, Il Pomo d’Oro and the Simón Bolívar Trumpet Ensemble. The students have also featured in programmes at high-profile events and locations, such as TEDx, the Hellenic Festival and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre. And, in November 2017, El Sistema Greece launched its own orchestra, in which students from refugee communities perform alongside local fledgling talent in regular performances around the Greek capital.

Projects inspired by El Sistema - the legendary Venezuelan education scheme, whose founder, José Antonio Abreu, passed away in March 2018 - now operate in sixty-five countries worldwide and the Sistema Europe Network encompasses some 130 Sistema-inspired local centres in locations across Europe. In 2013, the Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra (SEYO) concept was established to annually bring together young Sistema-inspired musicians from across the continent. Last year’s edition of SEYO was held under the auspices of El Sistema Greece in Athens and featured more than 400 young musicians from throughout Europe. These young musicians participated in the SEYO residency at the Athens Conservatoire, before appearing alongside refugee children at the closing event of the Hellenic Festival - the largest music festival of its kind in Greece. Next stop, the 5th SEYO residency, which will be hosted by Sistema England & Sistema Europe in London and Birmingham from 18th - 28th August 2018.

 
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Reconnecting Symphonies by Ángel Ballesteros

Facebook video teaser: facebook.com/elsistemagreece/videos/481249145668484/  
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ve1VMtqXywQ 
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/265726512 
Press kit link: http://bit.ly/reconnectingsymphonies

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About the creators:

Ángel Ballesteros (Spain, 1984) is a multimedia documentary photographer and film-maker. He is currently travelling around Greece, Turkey and the Balkans, documenting current affairs across the region. Ángel is a contributor to a number of news mediums, including AJ+, Vice News, The Guardian, eldiario.es, CTXT, Playground, DiePresse, El Confidencial, TeleSUR and VOLATA. He is also a member of the Muzungu TV collective and can be found on Twitter under @b8ch0.

 

Ghinwa Dahir (Lebanon, 1988) has been working in cinematography for over eight years as a director of photography, a focus puller and an editor on a variety of content, including fiction films, documentaries, web series, news television, commercials and music videos. For the past two years, she has been focusing on documentaries and travelling to portray impactful stories from around the globe. Ghinwa also deploys her film-making and photography skills as part of the What Took You So Long collective.
 
Nikolas Kostantinou (Greece, 1979) has been working as a sound recordist and sound designer for feature films, short films, documentaries, TV, educational, corporate and commercial productions since 2007. Fascinated by the arts and different cultures, he has worked on international projects in the UK, Spain, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and Colombia. Based in Athens, he co-founded City of Errors Productions in 2014.

Nessim Stevensson (United Kingdom, 1993) is a film-maker and photographer who was raised in Beirut, where his passion for capturing the world around him first developed. He graduated from the University of Sussex with a first-class honours BA in media production and has since worked with NBC News (London) and the What Took You So Long collective. He has experience working in over 20 countries, including Mongolia, where he spent three months filming short documentaries in 2015.

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EL SISTEMA GREECE
elsistemagreece.com
facebook.com/elsistemagreece
twitter.com/elsistemagreece
instagram.com/elsistemagreece

SISTEMA EUROPE
sistemaeurope.org
facebook.com/sistemaeurope
twitter.com/sistemaeurope

SEYO18
sistemaeurope.org/Press-Release/SEYO18_Press_Release/