Tunes for Peace Project
Make Music and Design a better Future

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Tunes for Peace is a mixture of a cultural activity and a youth empowerment idea at the same time. At the time young Palestinians are trained to play music, their character is getting built up and they are empowered to be more effective in their community.

The trainees are tuned to play and listen to authentic music instead of the new commercial music. In addition, Tunes for Peace mixes between eastern and western instruments in a way that joins cultures together. While all the trainers are locals, a vision to have some international volunteers to add a new touch to the project is open.

This will also open chances for cross-cultural cooperation and will give the students new insight about music.

The project started in May 2009 with initial fund of 5000 Euros from a group of Italian activists who raised the money by organizing concerts and activities in a number of Italian cities.

With this fund, we managed to purchase the musical instruments, (Ouds, Guitars, handrums, Violins and Saxophone, in addition to some accessories and a keyboard.) the rest of the fund was used to pay the teachers and the project supervisor.

In the Palestinian context, building a musical group in a local town, one where Christians and Muslims live together creates an opportunity for them form a single unit, where they share their skills and experiences, and thereby enrich the local spirit. It is this idea that supports our goal of building local bridges between the Palestinian people and the international community as well. Moreover, this musical experience allows students to release their emotions and express themselves creatively. Through campaigns that compose strong music and dynamic lyrics, they also relate to and unite people in the common goals of peace and justice.

It is for these reasons that the "Tunes for Peace" project has been initiated. The project, which aims to integrate music into the lives of Palestinian youth, will be implemented by the Angelo Frammartino Educational Center (AFEC) which is part of the Community Service and Development Department in PCR. The Angelo Frammartino Educational Center was established in March 2008 with a major support of the Italian youth organization, A La Calle.

It is a fact that there are many young Palestinians in the Beit Sahour community who wish to learn music and possess the skills, but cannot afford to pay for the proper equipment nor the expensive fees to attend a music school. Therefore, this project will serve as a support center for those students, and will also complement the goals of the Angelo Frammartino Educational Center to give Palestinian students an opportunity to develop their musical knowledge and abilities.

The program will also allow both christian and muslim youth to interact together through a learning process and later work together as a group, which will enhance the local christian-muslim ties in Beit Sahour, that is one of the few cities with Christian majority. PCR has always promoted Christian-Muslim relations through sharing life, work and experience rather than preaching about it, a method that has been proven successful along the 22 years of PCR's work.

Currently the program focuses on a target group of 20 students aged 12 to 16, with preference given to lower income families who are not able to cover the cost of conservatory fees. The most promising students, recommended by teachers, were chosen from several different schools. Some had previous music experience and some had not, however, all participated in a trial workshop, where the final group was selected. From there, the group is divided into sets of players. Thus far, there are five instrument sets, the alto saxophone, violin, guitar, 'Oud, and percussion sections.

A musical band is being formed now of 11 students performing the five instruments. A video of the first concert is available at this link:

In this concert, which was held November 21, 2009, students played a number of musical pieces solo and as a group. The audience of the concert were the parents of the trainees.

The trainers are highly professional and have taught and played music for a number of years despite of their young age. Each one of them is either a main member or the leader of a musical group.

The group leader and music supervisor Mr. Wassim Qassis is adopting a participatory approach in training the group. He gives them a chance to have an input on the song they want to play and to improvise which encourages them to be more creative and increases the feeling of ownership somehow to the pieces they are playing.

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Plans for the future:

we are planning to have a CD for the group with at least 10 tracks included. The content of the CD will also be prepared to be performed on stage in live concerts. In addition, we are planning to add more instruments that will add a new taste to some of the pieces they play. Cultural exchange with people from different parts of the world is among our interests for this project as well.

As an educational center, AFEC is planning in the long run to become a permanent educational center, not only on an academic level, but also in arts, and music is only one of them, a place that will give a chance for those who can not afford it because of financial reasons.