Together Strong Voices Chorus

In cooperation with UNHCR (UN Higher Commissioner for Refugees) and Alt Kat by İKSV (İstanbul Culture and Art Foundation), World Academy for Local Governments and Democracy (WALD) gathered 35 children from refuges and local communities with unify and transformative power of the music for a project called “Together Strong Voices Chorus II” in 2020.

The choir started to perform under the supervision of the conductor Zeynep Eren Kovankaya from İKSV Alt Kat and kept on online during Covid-19 pandemic. Chorus performed a mini concert for the 48th İstanbul Music Festival. With this project a doorway to a polyphonic and multicultural world has been opened for the children.

During the choir performances the children mentioned that they learnt to sing new songs in different languages, to raise their voices louder, to mimic different sounds by imitating “infant, fat uncle and old witch” and correct breathing technics. They emphasized that their teacher encouraged each child even though they had hard times in the beginning, and they learnt faster to sing the songs when teacher sings with them.