First Weeks in Germany

I’m in Lübeck, interning at an organization called Tontalente, whose slogan is “Musik verbindet Menschen” – music connects people.  They have four different projects that run every week, all of them centered around refugees and other non-native German speakers.  On Mondays, we have Musikcafé International, which is primarily for young male refugees.  We sing and play songs in Turkish, Georgian, Arabic, Kurdish, German, and English, and I’m also teaching guitar to those who want to learn it.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays are LebensKünstler, or “living artist.”  Tuesday we go to a school in Kücknitz, a neighboring town, and Wednesday we go to the Gotthard-Kühl-Schule in southeast Lübeck, and teach guitar, keyboard, violin, singing, and percussion to school-age children, most of whom are also refugees.  On Friday we have our biggest project: Stadtteilorchester, or “neighborhood orchestra.”  Here, we teach percussion, keyboard and accordion, trumpet, guitar, singing, and rap.  Stadtteilorchester recently recently recorded their first song, “Komm flieg mit mir,” which you can watch below.  Tontalente also has a percussion workshop which meets every three weeks, and a semi-annual Hip Hop Lab.  All these groups will be together on March 5th, when Tontalente celebrates their 5-year anniversary.