Choral music to break down language barriers
The EchangeChœurs exchange program brings together Swiss children's and youth choirs across linguistic borders. As its name suggests, it organizes and supports exchanges between choirs from different regions.
This new exchange and promotion program is supported by the Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation, Movetia, the national agency for promoting exchanges and mobility, and the Swiss Association for the Promotion of Children's and Youth Choirs SKJF. EchangeChoeurs enables children's and youth choirs from German- and French-speaking Switzerland to find a partner choir in another language region. Choir exchange projects in Italian- and Romansh-speaking Switzerland are also encouraged. Movetia provides an IT platform for finding a partner choir. Once two choirs have found each other, they organize one or more concerts together.
Financial support for each exchange project depends on the number of participants. It can range from 3,000 to 7,000 Swiss francs. The EchangeChoeurs program also includes advice on organizing an exchange. Other forms of support are offered, such as a conversation guide written in both exchange languages, for example: "Faites attention à l'intonation" / "Achtet auf die Intonation".
Choirs lend themselves particularly well to linguistic and cultural exchange, as it is in choral singing that the artistic forms of language and music unite. Developing a program and preparing a concert together enables young singers not only to put their language skills into practice, but also to get to know the members of another choir and its musical profile. Music is a way of expressing emotions and forging bonds.
The three support organizations complement each other ideally to make a project a reality: the Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation, for whom the promotion of cohesion between the language regions is a priority objective, provides the funding for the projects and for the promotion program as a whole, which it manages; the SKJF Association makes available its platform of children's and youth choirs, as well as its choral singing know-how; Movetia, which also organizes a class exchange program on behalf of the Swiss Confederation, takes care of putting the choirs in touch with each other and carrying out an initial check on applications for support. A committee of experienced youth choral music experts from all over Switzerland accompanies each project.
Find out more:
www.movetia.ch/echangechoeurs
www.binding-stiftung.ch/fr/echangechoeurs.php
www.skjf.ch
