How Caravans Sound Like

One or the other face was amazed last week: the “music caravan” roamed through the SEKEM Initiative again. This time the Studio Choir of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz visited SEKEM and gave various concerts accompanied by Prof. Johannes Prinz and Rahela Duric. Thus, the whole SEKEM Initiative could enjoy a colorful mix of music, which they had not yet heard.

The international choir organized several 30 minutes music concerts – for students of the Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development, but also for the various employees of the companies and institutions on the grounds of the SEKEM farm. Many employees of ISIS Organic, the Medical Center, Lotus, NatureTex and El Mizan as well as of the SEKEM School listened to Austrian folk songs and classical European choral songs for the first time.

“Arabic music generally uses one voice. Listening to compositions with several voices is certainly a new experience for the people”, says Marko Skorin, who belongs to the international choir and was also choirmaster in SEKEM for one year. “Our singing creates curiosity and curiosity is the driving force for everything we want to do and learn,” adds Johannes Prinz who is professor for choral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. “And this is our goal: to inspire this curiosity through the beautiful impressions, which we place here with our singing”, Professor Prinz continues.

The students alternately conducted the choir.

From Mexico, Spain and South Korea

However, the music was not exclusively European. The choir singers come from more than ten countries from all parts of the world, and also made this clear – for example with performing a Japanese song. In total, 25 members of the international choir visited the SEKEM Initiative.

Various music projects, such as the SEKEM choir, the teachers’ or children’s choir, have always existed in SEKEM. Since last year, small tours of music caravans have been taking place regularly, in order to promote the cultural awareness of the staff and to offer them a welcome change to the daily work routine. The SEKEM Friends Association Austria initiated and supported the choir tour.

Christina Büns

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