Mitmachmusik Berlin - Project

In light of the current political climate in Germany, marked by increasing societal division, our work assumes a heightened significance. Following the success of Building Bridges in 2019, the influx of students to Berlin, especially from Ukraine since 2022, has further inspired and strengthened our conviction that we must continue our work. Through the social integration of these children, we are making a sustainable contribution to society – thanks to BBT.

Frank Uhe, Chair

MitMachMusik Berlin encourages social inclusion and creative accomplishment for refugee children and German adolescents through regular music programmes at centres in Berlin. As well as traumatisation as a result of conflict, deprivation and loss, refugee children arriving in a new country experience overwhelming feelings of alienation and isolation. Making music together engenders communication, friendship, accomplishment and sheer joyousness in a place of respite and shelter.

A new BBT Community Grant of £45,000 over the next three years will support MitMachMusik Berlin’s delivery of Building Bridges 2.0: Around the World in Music, a three-year programme of large ensemble workshop days and vacation courses. Designed to enhance MitMachMusik’s weekly music instrument learning curriculum, these workshops and courses will take inspiration from the music of different cultures across the world, unifying and strengthening their musical skills, self-perception and social awareness that characterise genuine integration. As such it is a significant development of the original Building Bridges four-day summer camp that was supported by the first BBT Community Grant in 2019.

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Read MitMachMusik’s Blog by Bridget Kinneary: Staying in Tune During Corona here

Photographs by Djuneid Dulloo, Ilona Havrylash & Peter C Theis