Music in Nieuw Gent
The music we make is a basic right for everyone. Flanders Symphonic Orchestra is socially committed and also looks at the world outside the concert hall! Under the name FSO-Express, our musicians go out and build bridges through music.
Music educational project
With ‘Het Leven is een Lied' Flanders Symphony Orchestra and Mais Quelle Chanson join their artistic forces for a music educational project in the schools of the social housing district New Ghent. It is a great mixture between reading and philosophizing, between writing songs and making music. It is a meeting point for both artist and musician, between pupils and new challenging ways of educating. A successful first edition in 2019 marked the start of this inspiring collaboration.
Starting from workshops making short stories and poetry, the children start a dialogue with each other and create their own lyrics. Together with musicians of Flanders Symphony Orchestra and Mais Quelle Chanson, they compose a melody to their self-written song. As icing on the cake, an arrangement is made with the orchestra, the project ends with a public presentation in and outside the New Ghent district.
Some of the past projects of 'Life is a Song'
| Project | Making instruments from recycled materials (2023)
Pupils roll up their sleeves and build their own instrument. They let their imaginations run wild and get to work with materials they have collected from home and school.
| Project | Overcoming (2021)
Fair Saturday 2019
Saturday 30 November 2019, Fair Saturday took place, a global initiative highlighting the social impact of culture and arts. Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Flanders Symphony Orchestra and Mais Quelle Chanson organized an interactive benefit concert for De Broederij, an open meeting place on the Standaertsite in Ledeberg.
Children and youngsters from the New Ghent district introduced, together with the musicians of FSO, the audience in an interactive way to their stimulation project through singing, philosophy and music.
Fair Saturday, a global initiative highlighting the social impact of culture and the arts, took place on Saturday 30 November 2019. In cooperation with Mais Quelle Chanson, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke and Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen organised an interactive benefit concert for the benefit of De Broederij, an open meeting place on the Standaert site in Ledeberg. Through singing, philosophy and music, children and young people from the Nieuw Gent neighbourhood introduced the audience to their stimulating project.
Outreach
Music knows no boundaries and Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen takes this quite literally. With the SOV-Express, we go out in groups to bring music to people's living environment, far beyond the walls of the concert hall. Our playing domain for these outreach projects is the residential area of Nieuw Gent. We have already been guests at the children's hospital, the nursary, the primary schools, the open house for young mothers and the social restaurant in the neighbourhood. Our aim? To break down barriers, stimulate curiosity and make classical music accessible to all.