PRESS RELEASE
Mitrovica, August 17, 2011
Dutch musicians and Kosovo youth to rock Skopje
The Mitrovica Rock School's fourth annual summer school is the most ambitious to date
On August 21, 24 students of the Mitrovica Rock School will travel to Skopje, Macedonia, to study with seven Dutch rock musicians from the Fontys Rock Academy. For one week the Mitrovica youth will form ethnically mixed bands, choose songs and band names and prepare a major show together. On Friday August 26, all participants will perform at a free open-air concert on the Shkolka Stage in Skopje’s City Park.
In Mitrovica, Kosovo, ethnic Albanians and Serbs live their lives divided almost entirely by the river Ibar – and by war. Albanians live in the South of the city, Serbs in the North. Before the war, Mitrovica was a center for rock music in the region. The Mitrovica Rock School aims to restore this reputation, but because the divide makes it impossible for Rock School students to attend one inter-ethnic school, two Rock School branches have been set up, one on each side of the city. Every year, in order to break through this divide, the Rock School invites 24 of its students and all teachers for a rock and roll summer school in Skopje, the capital of neighboring Macedonia.
Throughout the week, the participants will be coached by the Rock School's 12 teachers and coordinators from Mitrovica and seven trainers from the Fontys Rock Academy in the Netherlands. They will follow an intensive program that includes five days of band practice and performance, including individual and group lessons in all aspects of musical theory, marketing, engineering and production.
This year, we are very pleased to present the first performance of the Rock School’s A-Team, a new multi-ethnic band performing original work. For months, the members of the A-Team have been recording demos and sharing ideas online in preparation for summer school. When they meet in Skopje, they will work with students of the Fontys Rock Academy to finish writing and recording demos of these brand new songs: songs that they will be bringing to the Netherlands for a September performance at IKV Pax Christi's event Night of Peace, followed by a 2012 Dutch Liberation Day tour.
The Mitrovica Rock School aims to become an independent, interethnic and regionally famous rock music institute by the summer of 2012. The project is a cooperative initiative of Musicians without Borders, Community Building Mitrovica, IKV Pax Christi and the Fontys Rock Academy. The Skopje Summer School carried out in partnership with Civil –Center for Freedom, a leading NGO in the field of human rights, peace, and arms control in the Republic of Macedonia.
The 2011 Skopje Summer School is financially supported by the embassies of Finland, the United States, Norway and France in Pristina. The Mitrovica Rock School project is financially supported by the Social Transformation Program (Matra) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
With this fourth edition, over 100 young Mitrovica musicians will have played and performed together in Skopje for some 1,500 young Macedonians plus parents and friends from Mitrovica. Every year, the Rock School thus expands its reach, spreading the word of peace and rock and roll throughout the region.
Dates:
Summer School: August21-28
Closing concert: Friday, August26
Location: Skopje, Macedonia
Note for the editors:
It is possible to travel with the Rock Academy group and visit the project on-site. Please contact Wendy Hassler-Forest (Project Manager, Musicians without Borders):
; +381 65 65 96 477 / +386 49 260 540
Multiple receipt
While we try to avoid duplicate circulation of our communications, there is a chance that you will receive this press release from more than one project partner. Please help us to avoid such duplicate circulation by notifying us if you have received this press release more than once. Many thanks in advance!
More information:
Wendy Hassler-Forest (Project Manager, Musicians without Borders):
; +381 65 65 96 477 / +386 49 260 540
Milos Drazevic (Community Building Mitrovica):
; +381 6464 19 638
Mitrovica Rock School online:
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