Czech Philharmonic teaches outcast Roma children

In a highly unusual initiative that crosses hardline ethnic prejudices, players in the Czech Philharmonic are running a music and dance camp for around 60 Roma kids.

Petr Kadlec of the orchestra’s education department says:

‘We want to support children and youth in socially excluded localities and we are trying to do it with the help of music.

‘As you know, in the socially excluded localities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia there is no-one or almost no-one who takes care of talented Roma children and youth, and that is something we are trying to change with this project.

‘So we are trying to support talented singers and dancers and to work with them. We believe it might a kind of life-changing experience for them because they experience themselves in a positive situation. We hope that they can gain more self-confidence and more self-assuredness, so that is in short the reason why we, as the Czech Philharmonic, are taking part.’

More here.