Since October, it is now up to CM1 students from the Descartes school in Villeneuve-sur-Lot to participate in the “School Orchestra” project. Supported by the Greater Villeneuvois Agglomeration, the Academic Inspectorate and the City of Villeneuve-sur-Lot, this project aims to make room in the timetable for learning an instrument. The 20 students chose from four instruments from the brass family: the trombone, the trumpet, the horn and the tuba. After having proven itself for several years in the Jean-Jaurès and Paul-Bert schools, the “Orchestra at school” project will this time allow follow-up over two years since they will benefit from this course every Thursday until the end of CM2.
In front of the elected officials of the municipality, the teaching staff of the Descartes school, the parents of the students and the music teachers, the children of the CM1 class were impatient to be officially given the instruments they had received. opportunity to discover for several weeks already. “They tried them all on first to see which one they were most comfortable with. It’s important not to impose it on them because two years of learning an instrument that you didn’t choose is a long time,” explains Grégory Mauri, director of the Descartes school.
The aim is also to allow children who are not registered at the conservatory to have access to musical instruments”
The project is carried out with the participation of teachers from the Béla-Bartók conservatory in Grand Villeneuvois to facilitate young people's access to music. For two years, the conservatory provides and maintains the instruments which are entrusted to the children and brought home.
Transversal skills
The children will therefore form an orchestra with their teachers who will also sit on the benches of the conservatory and learn with their students. “The goal is also to allow children who are not registered at the conservatory to have access to musical instruments,” specifies its director, Michaël Minicki. And why not give birth to future vocations…
The timetable had to be adjusted to allow the school to free up an hour and a half per week, every Thursday morning, to go to the conservatory. Concentration, listening, creative ability, group cohesion… The benefits are multiple, both musically and academically. “It allows you to work on a whole bunch of transversal skills. For example, we will make a logbook which will follow them for two years and therefore at each session, they will write down what they have done. There, we just did mathematics with fractions using tambourines. It’s a global project, not just musical,” adds Grégory Mauri.
Three conservatory teachers welcome students and their teachers to the establishment for two 45-minute workshops. A first per instrument and a second bringing together all the students and teachers for collective orchestra practice. Once students are comfortable with their instruments, performances should be planned in front of an audience.
