Annual report 2004 - Compagnia di San Paolo

Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999), inventor of the Mus-e project
To promote music in schools
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In the Education sector, within the scope of the promotion
of “knowledge” often not adequately dealt with by the
school system, the Compagnia gives support to “music in
school” (while the Cultural heritage and activities sector
deals with “music schools”).
For four years the Compagnia has supported the
association Cantascuola, which organises a “European
School of Culture and Musical Education - SECEM” in
Turin: the project provides for the gradual constitution of
sections of elementary schools which use a method based
on learning through musical education (for example,
foreign languages are taught using the rhythm and
intonation of the sentence, phonetics, phonology; history
and geography are dealt with starting from elements of
ethnomusicology and the sociology of music). So far 15
elementary school classes have been involved.
Additionally, the association holds workshop and training
activity days aimed at the world of the school and training,
on subjects of a musical nature, at the “Casa della
Musica”, the new structure recently equipped set up in
Settimo Torinese (Turin). In 2004 the Compagnia awarded
grants of € 75,000 for SECEM and € 40,000 for the “Casa
della Musica”. For some years the Compagnia has
supported the Associazione Mus-e Italia Onlus, affiliated
to the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, with headquarters in
Brussels, established by the great violinist in 1991, which
promotes the project Mus-e in 12 European countries in
co-operation with UNESCO and with the EU. In Italy the
project has been produced in Milan, Bologna, Cremona,
Turin and Genoa; the activities of the last two branches
were supported by Compagnia, in 2004, with grants of
€ 185,000 for Mus-e Turin and € 40,000 for Mus-e
Genoa. The project is performed in classes over the threeyear
cycle, with the presence of professional artists for at
least 60 hours in a school year. Mus-e intends to act on the
collective dynamics, diluting social tensions and
developing expressive capacity in children, with a
perspective of harmonious and balanced growth.