The exchange programme between Seychelles’ Conservatoire of Performing Arts and the Swedish town of Umeå gained additional impetus with the formalisation of a joint project to compile a CD with voices of Swedish and Seychellois students. 

Professors and students of Seychelles’ School of Music were in Umeå to teach a group of Swedish students a Creole song. Consequently three Swedish students – Elina Sandstroem, David Andersson and Tine Aahlstroem Riklund – accompanied by a music teacher and choir conductor were recently in Seychelles to conduct a series of workshops with Seychellois students and adults.

Officially headed by the honorary consul for Seychelles in Sweden Lennart Svensson, the back-to-back workshops started with a one-week choir music workshop by internationally recognised choir conductor Lage Forsberg.  A youth choir comprising school children aged 16-25 learned to use their singing voices in an expressive manner and gained additional vocal skills.

The Seychelles’ Conservatoire of Performing Arts said it recorded a positive turnout of 35 including choir conductors and music teachers for the choir workshop.

The workshop held at the National Conservatoire of Performing Arts, Mont Fleuri was followed by a week-long music workshop by Thomas Fredlander, a professional bass player and music teacher at Tegcentralskola in Sweden. A complete line-up of young people aged 13-17 years addressed the fundamentals of harmony and new methods of learning music. Students were also encouraged to play new instruments and learned a Swedish song.

After three days of intense practice, they came out with flying colours in mastering the proposed Swedish song.

National Conservatoire of Performing Arts director Pierre Joseph said that with the success of these two workshops there are plans for the young people to meet every Friday afternoon at the Conservatoire for “lively exchanges and to experience the jovial and easy aspects of learning music”.

Thomas Fredlander spent a day with five Seychellois bass players to go over some fundamentals of bass playing techniques with emphasis on easy reading approaches and understanding grooves.

Forrás: www.nation.sc