UMUT: Community Music Project
UMUT: Community Music Project aims to support adults, young people and children who continue to live in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır where hardships still continue after the 6 February Earthquakes. The project relies on empowerment through the arts, especially through the power of making music together.
The project, which started in May 2024, was designed in partnership with Ton Talente e.V. from Lübeck, Germany, with a Community Music Approach that multiplies the opportunities for creative expression by taking into account cultural and linguistic diversity and inclusion.
What is Community Music?
ommunity music can be defined as a field of art that offers numerous opportunities such as developing musical skills such as voice and breathing, rhythm exercises and body percussion as well as playing instruments, making melodies, writing multilingual lyrics and composing together. While doing all these, it aims to support each individual in the community to express themselves and the problems they would like to focus through art, to develop a musical voice, and to create space for the community to raise different voices together.
In the aftermath of crises or disasters, community music plays an important role in regaining individual and social strength and in nurturing recovery processes. It is an important method of artistic production, not only for individuals to discover their own skills and resources, but also for them to be able to take action through collective and creative methods. In the community music approach, prerequisites such as being a musician or having a deep experience in the field of music are not sought. On the contrary, since the process of making music and the processes of being together socially and acting collectively are equally important, individual expression and creative work in groups are mobilised in coordination.
Community Music Workshops in Three Cities
In the HOPE: Community Music project we set out a long preparation period between May and August. The first step was to understand the current situation and needs in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır and to convey these insights to the institutions and trainers we worked with from Germany through online meetings.
A three-week series of workshops was organised in September 2024 with a large field team of musicians, art educators and translators invited from Germany, the UK and Turkey. Women, youth and children were brought together in music workshops in Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır in cooperation with the organisations in Anadolu Kültür's local networks.
During these visits, meetings were held with representatives and employees of organisations operating in container cities or in different neighborhoods in these cities. We discussed with them the ways to increase the number and diversity of art activities and make them more accessible.
In parallel, improvised music activities were organised in these cities to support the well-being of civil society workers who have been working continuously since the Earthquakes.
Empowerment through Community Music: Train the Trainers Program
Based on the impressions and information gained during the fieldwork, a comprehensive training program was prepared by the musicians and the project team from Anadolu Kültür in a format to respond to the challenges of continuing to work in these cities and addressing the needs of different target groups.
An open call for individual applications from eight cities affected by the Earthquakes was issued. A large number of applications were received from different professional groups, with and without musical knowledge and skills. Thirty-three participants were selected who fulfilled the requirements of being able to attend the training in full and to practice community music activities after the training. Social workers, music teachers, psychologists, pedagogues, musicians and art educators from different provinces came together in the Training Programme, which lasted five days at Çand Amed in Diyarbakır. The training included sessions in which participants from different specialisations and experiences contributed to the programme in order to create a pool of applicable methods for the local communities they work with.
In the training, we worked on questions like;
• How can we creatively make use of our own skills and resources for the community by utilizing simple tools and instruments?
• What are the principles of working with groups of different ages with diversified needs in areas where difficulties persist such as post-disaster regions?
• How can we design sessions to foster ‘inclusive learning through music’, how can we promote coexistence through the arts and reflect on minimizing discrimination?
• Improvisation and Jam Sessions: How can we facilitate groups of participants with different skills to make music together using a variety of simple instruments?
• Cross-Arts Practices: How can music be combined with visual arts, dance and/or drama?
• How to plan artistic and music activities, how to receive feedback and how to conduct evaluation methods?
In addition to the five-day training, participants, trainers and musicians from Diyarbakır came together in improvised music activities in the evening programmes, and we organized visits to a few cultural heritage sites.
HOPE: Community Music Workshops Are Implemented in Eight Cities
After the training, participants designed their own music sessions and content for different target groups to be implemented in the cities where they live and work. In November and December, they conducted community music activities in their own cities, in the institutions where they work or in the community centers where Anadolu Kültür referred to.
In the online supervision meetings with musicians from Germany and the UK, the participants had the opportunity to get feedback on their own practices and find answers to their questions.
To close the project, Ton Talente e.V, our partner from Germany organised an event where the current situation in the Earthquake-affected cities in Turkey was shared and the project achievements and outputs were presented.
For 2025, we are continuing our efforts to realise the second edition of the HOPE: Community Music Project.
The project, which started in May 2024, was designed in partnership with Ton Talente e.V. from Lübeck, Germany, with a Community Music Approach that multiplies the opportunities for creative expression by taking into account cultural and linguistic diversity and inclusion.
What is Community Music?
ommunity music can be defined as a field of art that offers numerous opportunities such as developing musical skills such as voice and breathing, rhythm exercises and body percussion as well as playing instruments, making melodies, writing multilingual lyrics and composing together. While doing all these, it aims to support each individual in the community to express themselves and the problems they would like to focus through art, to develop a musical voice, and to create space for the community to raise different voices together.
In the aftermath of crises or disasters, community music plays an important role in regaining individual and social strength and in nurturing recovery processes. It is an important method of artistic production, not only for individuals to discover their own skills and resources, but also for them to be able to take action through collective and creative methods. In the community music approach, prerequisites such as being a musician or having a deep experience in the field of music are not sought. On the contrary, since the process of making music and the processes of being together socially and acting collectively are equally important, individual expression and creative work in groups are mobilised in coordination.
Community Music Workshops in Three Cities
In the HOPE: Community Music project we set out a long preparation period between May and August. The first step was to understand the current situation and needs in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır and to convey these insights to the institutions and trainers we worked with from Germany through online meetings.
A three-week series of workshops was organised in September 2024 with a large field team of musicians, art educators and translators invited from Germany, the UK and Turkey. Women, youth and children were brought together in music workshops in Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır in cooperation with the organisations in Anadolu Kültür's local networks.
During these visits, meetings were held with representatives and employees of organisations operating in container cities or in different neighborhoods in these cities. We discussed with them the ways to increase the number and diversity of art activities and make them more accessible.
In parallel, improvised music activities were organised in these cities to support the well-being of civil society workers who have been working continuously since the Earthquakes.
Empowerment through Community Music: Train the Trainers Program
Based on the impressions and information gained during the fieldwork, a comprehensive training program was prepared by the musicians and the project team from Anadolu Kültür in a format to respond to the challenges of continuing to work in these cities and addressing the needs of different target groups.
An open call for individual applications from eight cities affected by the Earthquakes was issued. A large number of applications were received from different professional groups, with and without musical knowledge and skills. Thirty-three participants were selected who fulfilled the requirements of being able to attend the training in full and to practice community music activities after the training. Social workers, music teachers, psychologists, pedagogues, musicians and art educators from different provinces came together in the Training Programme, which lasted five days at Çand Amed in Diyarbakır. The training included sessions in which participants from different specialisations and experiences contributed to the programme in order to create a pool of applicable methods for the local communities they work with.
In the training, we worked on questions like;
• How can we creatively make use of our own skills and resources for the community by utilizing simple tools and instruments?
• What are the principles of working with groups of different ages with diversified needs in areas where difficulties persist such as post-disaster regions?
• How can we design sessions to foster ‘inclusive learning through music’, how can we promote coexistence through the arts and reflect on minimizing discrimination?
• Improvisation and Jam Sessions: How can we facilitate groups of participants with different skills to make music together using a variety of simple instruments?
• Cross-Arts Practices: How can music be combined with visual arts, dance and/or drama?
• How to plan artistic and music activities, how to receive feedback and how to conduct evaluation methods?
In addition to the five-day training, participants, trainers and musicians from Diyarbakır came together in improvised music activities in the evening programmes, and we organized visits to a few cultural heritage sites.
HOPE: Community Music Workshops Are Implemented in Eight Cities
After the training, participants designed their own music sessions and content for different target groups to be implemented in the cities where they live and work. In November and December, they conducted community music activities in their own cities, in the institutions where they work or in the community centers where Anadolu Kültür referred to.
In the online supervision meetings with musicians from Germany and the UK, the participants had the opportunity to get feedback on their own practices and find answers to their questions.
To close the project, Ton Talente e.V, our partner from Germany organised an event where the current situation in the Earthquake-affected cities in Turkey was shared and the project achievements and outputs were presented.
For 2025, we are continuing our efforts to realise the second edition of the HOPE: Community Music Project.
