A whole other music

The AllegroModerato Orchestra is composed of teachers and musicians, both able bodied and disabled, using a method that enables even those who have never played an instrument to learn to play strings and percussion, actively involving every participant in the execution and elaboration of famous symphonic works. This method enables students to play an instrument without the requisite technical and theoretical knowledge.

One day a week, three teachers and four disabled musicians (in a rotating fashion) go to the pediatric wards of the Niguarda and San Carlo Hospitals and conduct two orchestra workshops for the young patients there. They also go to the children’s rooms for individual music lessons for those who cannot get out of bed. The disabled musicians act as tutors; not only do they play the instruments but they show the children how to hold them, pluck the strings, create a vibrato, etc.

Along with the children who are patients, nurses, parents, social workers and even doctors are invited to take a few minutes to try out a bass drum, pluck the strings of a harp or just listen.

The music gives the ward a pleasant social atmosphere among the patients, their families and the hospital employees, providing the children a stimulating, educational and creative time during their stay. Playing in the pediatric hospital also enables the young, disabled musicians to experience volunteer work taking care of children and forgetting, for the duration of the workshop, their own state of vulnerability. The project foresees theoretical and practical training for volunteer musicians, enabling the project to play a role in specific formative-educational protocols inside the hospitals.