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The following is a translated excerpt from a radio interview from the Dutch classical music station, NPO Klassiek. In the interview, NPO host Hans Noordman visited one of our refugee workshops in a refugee centre in Leiden, Netherlands as part of our Welcome Notes NL program, and spoke to workshop leader Otto de Jong. 

You can listen to the audio version of this interview in Dutch on the NPO Klassiek website.

Otto de Jong, creating music in a Dutch asylum center, 2022

Many people know about Doctors Without Borders, but there is also a musical equivalent: Musicians Without Borders. The organization brings music to people in former conflict areas such as Kosovo or Rwanda and to asylum seekers in European countries such as the Netherlands. The idea: that music can be a medicine against the effects of violence. On July 4, Musicians without Borders celebrated its 25th anniversary.

How does the organization actually work? Reporter Hans Noordman was welcomed at a workshop in an asylum seekers’ center in Leiden.

Hans Noordman: We are looking for participants for today’s workshop. A long corridor with green walls and a door every four meters, these are all places to live, all rooms for residents here in the center. Next to me is Odai, one of the workshop leaders, originally from Syria. He is holding instruments: drums and kazoos.

The doors are open slightly. The conversations are short. Communication is difficult as many different languages are spoken. It is unclear whether anyone will show up. But slowly, people do start to enter the workshop space. A few are children around six or seven years old. As they walk in, they receive a drum from the workshop leader, Otto de Jong.

Otto de Jong, why are workshops like these a good idea?

Otto: There are several reasons. To begin with, making music is very healthy for everyone, especially people who work day in and day out. For example, there are adults as well as children here. They should be given the opportunity to let out energy for a while, even if it is just an hour of happiness, you can create it through music. 

Hopefully, the participants of this music workshop see that there are people who care about them. Music is a very strong means of making that connection. Even though we do not necessarily speak the language of the residents who are there at that time, music is a language that everyone understands, and we have the technology to use that language.

Hans: Back in the Leiden workshop, slowly more and more children arrive, there are now five and a mother also arrives with two girls, around three and five years old. They are both very shy. A soft toy clutched in their arms. I don’t think they will be playing any time soon.

Otto and his colleague Odai have instruments for every child. Like a conductor, without words, but with gestures, Otto indicates who can play, and the music begins.

What do you notice in the children who take part in these workshops?

Otto: Well, we don’t always see what’s happening internally, what’s going on in the minds of those kids. For example, there are two very shy girls there today, but they have started to come out of their shell a little bit during the activities. They didn’t leave. They stuck with it. Who knows? next time we are here, they might go one step further.

People don’t have to participate in every activity, but they still show a smile, and to me that means we have made contact, that we’ve had a positive effect.

Hans: If we were to play devil’s advocate a bit, we could say this is a bit like playing kindergarten music. Whilst it is music making, it’s mostly fun and games for the  children.

Otto: That’s true, but there’s more. For example, this afternoon there was a moment when the children were suddenly completely silent, completely fascinated and completely in the tension of the piece of music we were making. Yes, it is completely different music to what we listen to in the Concertgebouw [Amsterdam’s largest classical music venue], but the laws are the same, the music still has an emotional effect. Big, small, whatever it is, we all experience it together. We had a shared experience. And that experience, that’s what music does. The effect of music is the same no matter where or who you are, and we can use that. That’s what we do here.