Dream Orchestra Learning Centre

Dream Orchestra, the symphonic orchestral music education programme for children and young people from all layers of society, has received a new grant in the 2024 Signatur programme, in support of the “Dream Orchestra Learning Centre” project.

This grant represents a renewal of the collaboration between Signatur and Dream Orchestra (DO), following on from Signatur’s contribution to the “Storytelling in Dream Orchestra” project, which was completed in 2023.

In the Dream Orchestra Learning Centre, members of the DO teaching team will take part in structured training workshops, and the project will enable the publication of DO’s didactic tool for teachers. In addition, the Learning Centre project will sustain DO’s ongoing work with musical practice, concerts, safeguarding, artistic and community activities for children and young people.

The Dream: An Orchestra for Everyone

Dream Orchestra’s journey started in 2016, when Ron Davis Alvarez invited a group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea and other countries in Afrika to learn to play a string instrument in the context of the symphonic orchestra.

Contributing to foster social inclusion and peaceful coexistence, today, DO seeks to meet the need for symphonic orchestral playing, for children and young people from all layers of society, who want to invest more time in music, rehearse intensively on a weekly basis and not least during the weekends to socialize and make friends. Talented and passionate young musicians with the ambition to excel in their music making have their place in DO and have their needs attended accordingly. As a community, DO offers a place for parents to the young musicians to bond with other families when they accompany their children and contribute as volunteers, supporting the teachers during the rehearsal and social gatherings. Today, DO exists in Gothenburg, Lövgärdet and Alingsås.

“Learning by Doing”

DO’s teachers make up a team, working together to create and implement strategies and dynamics, supporting the students in the process of overcoming technical and musical challenges. The teaching team ensure that the process of making musical progress is joyful, meaningful and safe for the students. Apart from providing teacher-led instrumental workshops or sectionals, the teachers also accompany their students in the general or tutti rehearsal, sitting next to them, guiding their learning process in this bigger context. Working side by side with the artistic director, teachers become involved in a holistic learning process, characteristic of DO’s learning model, and they get the opportunity to stand in front of the orchestra and lead a rehearsal. “Learning by doing” is therefore experienced not only by DO students, but also forms part of the DO teaching experience.

A Training Plan for Orchestra Teachers

The Signatur donation marks the beginning of a planned 3-year programme with a structured training plan. The aim is to help future “orchestra teachers” develop the multifaceted profile required to attend efficiently to the needs of a culturally diverse student group with and increasing number of participants. The Learning Centre will allow DO teachers to cultivate and exchange important personal, musical, pedagogic and management skills.

Read more about the work of Dream Orchestra and how you can get involved on their website: https://dreamorchestra.se/