Impressions from Azraq Jordan music workshop

The Azraq Education and Community Fund provides opportunities for refugee families to create a sense of normalcy after experiencing tremendous hardships over these last 10+ years of conflict.

In the face of this enormous humanitarian crisis, the fund focuses their efforts in the small, rural town of South Azraq, Jordan where nearly half of the town population today is a refugee.

In March 2023, a group of Sibelius Academy’s Global Music students travelled to Jordan to facilitate a collaborative music making week with the children attending the AECF education program.

The key aims of the project were to bring music making and creativity to the daily lives of the children of Al Azraq, and to give the global music students an experience of working in an international, intercultural environment through collaborating with the community of Al Azraq.

The long-term goal is to help create a sustainable music project that can be led by local musicians in the future, which will allow the children to have music as an integrated school subject.

With these aims, a follow up project will take place in April 2024.

Credits:
The Azraq Education and Community Fund team:

Alia Al Saad, Program Director & Principal
Nofa Fayiz, Jordan Project Head
Lexi Shereshewsky, US Executive Director
Suleiman, Operations & Outreach
Wa'el, Operations & Outreach
Islam, Bus Driver
A'isha Al Binain, School Cook
Alia Khleif, School Cook

Global music team:
lecturers: Nemat Battah and Puro Paju
Bachelor students: Ana Lazar, Sami Karkar, Merve Abdurrahmani,
Master’s students: Viivi Maria Saarenkylä, Shafeeq Al-Sadi
Doctoral student: Jussi Reijonen

This project is part of the Elsa Brule Centre for Global Music and Community Engagement, led by Professor Nathan Riki Thomson.

Special thanks to Elsa Brule.