Singing Molenbeek

Musicians enjoy playing concerts. But nothing beats the slow-burning, almost meditative experience of regular practice, that daily commitment to music, far away from the spotlight. No wonder. There’s a permanent dialogue with beauty at the core of your existence. Always something to admire, to give purpose and direction to your life. To quote the great Canadian professor Jordan Peterson, ‘Art isn’t a product, it’s a process’. And at some point that process transcends itself. Day after day, layer upon layer, it actually starts shaping you as a person.

This transformative quality lies at the root of Singing Molenbeek. Drawing gratefully on Maria João Pires’ children’s choirs, we organize high level choir rehearsals in the primary schools of Molenbeek, a Brussels suburb famous for all kinds of wrong reasons. We hope that introducing them to music, with all its demands and rewards, will help them personally and socially. We have no grand theory, and little certainties. We try to put them on track and get the best out of them, the way others did for us. And then let life sort it out.

More information at the Singing Molenbeek website (in French).