With Poland being one of the main countries where Ukrainian refugees found their safety running away from the war, our Polish members STOART and SAWP decided to help – free music workshops for Ukrainian children are bringing smiles on the faces of the little musicians.

In the initiative to ensure Ukrainian refugee children can continue to practice music, STOART and SAWP organized free music workshops. The workshops, which started about a week ago, are being held at the STOART premises and will continue for about two months.

Currently there are twenty children enrolled in the workshops learning piano, violin, drums as well as having vocal lessons. ‘We have keyboards for practice but soon we will have a real piano as well.’ says Agnieszka Parzuchowska, one of the initiators of the project adding that many of the children as well as the music teachers, in the most difficult times when they were forced to leave their homes in Ukraine, took their instruments with them. 

 

‘Just the other day, a 10-year old girl from Lviv had a violin lesson.’

 

Besides being able to practice their instruments, the children feel very comforted by the fact that they are being taught by Ukrainian teachers in their native language. And while the classes for children are free, the teacher are of course paid for their work, making these lessons even more valuable for the Ukrainian refugees.

Happy to see that the workshops bring so much joy to everyone, the organisers plan to buy and borrow some additional instruments in the future like tsymbaly (cymbal), an instrument traditionally played in Ukraine that several children expressed a wish to learn to play. Seeing the classes are a success, for the future workshops there are additional ideas like including group music therapy lessons in order to help even more in overcoming this difficult situation.

Applications for the workshops are still open, and children can get enrolled here.