Connecting youth across the divide

The Kosovo war of 1999 left the miners’ town of Mitrovica rigidly divided, with the Serb minority living north of the river and Albanian majority in the south. But before the war, Mitrovica had been a center for rock music: the home of many bands, an annual festival, and regular concerts and jam sessions.

Founded in 2008, the Mitrovica Rock School connects young Albanian, Serb and other musicians through a daily music lesson program, a program for mixed bands, and regular concerts and events. The school has brought together some 1,700 youth (ages 11-25) and has become one of Mitrovica’s first spaces to be shared by musicians from both sides.

Band coaching

The band coaching methodology of Fontys Rockacademie is central to the Rock School program. Ethnically mixed bands write original songs with the support of a band coach. The coach guides the communication process, genre negotiation, and the creative development of the song, ensuring the inclusion and ownership of all band members.

Recording

Bands record their original songs in the Mitrovica Rock School studio, which is operated by the school’s students trained in sound engineering under the program.

North Macedonia’s Roma minority is highly marginalized, and Romani youth have few educational and extracurricular opportunities. Roma Rock School gives Romani children in North Macedonia opportunities to experiment with popular music and improvisation, coached by professional teachers in a multi-ethnic environment. Students form multi-ethnic bands and write original music together. The program also offers opportunities to travel and perform.

Background

Roma Rock School was founded by a team of educators from the Braka Ramiz i Hamid primary school in Skopje, attended by some 2,000 primarily Romani children and youth.

The initial goal was to use rock music to teach talented young Romani musicians music theory and solfege, the main obstacles to them accessing public music education.