French Friends Orchestrate Social Awareness through Music

The French Friends of TAU, the University's Buchmann-Mehta School of Music and the Paris Chamber Orchestra joined forces to provide a unique opportunity for children who participate in Sulamot – Music for Social Change, a joint initiative between TAU and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO).

Children aged 10 to 14 who are involved in Sulamot were treated to four days of musical instruction by five members of the Paris Chamber Orchestra, who came to Israel specifically to participate in this program. The group was accompanied by students of TAU's Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, who were granted scholarships by the French Friends. The workshop culminated in a festive concert attended by 200 children of the Sulamot program in November in the Clairmont Concert Hall on the TAU campus.

"It was a privilege to see the children's faces light up as they listened to the wonderful musicians," enthused William Weil, one of the TAU music students.

The Sulamot outreach program was instituted by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, the IPO through its KeyNote program and TAU's Bob Shapell School of Social Work as an innovative and hope-instilling music education program for children and youth at risk in peripheral areas and underprivileged communities. Four hundred children participate in wind and string orchestras, and are taught by master's students of TAU's music school. The program currently operates in youth homes in south Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Pardes Hanna, Migdal Ha'Emek, Rehovot and Yavneh.

The Sulamot program enjoys the support of Keren Hayesod Switzerland, the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation, the Swiss Friends of Tel Aviv University headed by Anette Bollag-Rothschild, the Hecht Foundation, the Hermetic Foundation and private donors.