The Maltese Relief Service organized a series of festive jazz concerts for children from internally displaced families in Lviv. During the “Fabulous Music of Christmas” event, the children listened to Christmas jazz and co-created it. In particular, together with jazz musicians, the kids performed one of the most recognizable Christmas tunes in the world, Jingle Bells.
The Dzyga Art Center hosted four concerts attended by 75 children from IDP families. The musical performance was organized by the TEMPO Music Development Center and the musical conductor Iryna Vakulina.
According to the initiator of the event, Marta Bilska, Lviv has always been a powerful jazz center and has always hosted the largest jazz festivals in Ukraine. That is why it is important to show children whose families have found refuge in Lviv how the city lives.
“We gathered music teachers and jazz musicians at the Dzyga Art Center. They showed the kids how Christmas music is created, how the Christmas sound and mood are born,” says Marta Bilska. “Jazz is the music of the free, it best shows that we are free in our choices. Jazz allows you to improvise, create and be creative. Through this music, we showed children that we are free people in a free country, in a free city, and we can improvise not only in music but in life in general.”
The event was interactive, and the children were delighted to create music together, in particular, they helped the jazz musicians with the rhythm using bells and wooden sticks. They were also happy to receive gifts and enjoy warm cocoa and cheesecakes.
We would like to remind you that one of the vectors of the Maltese Relief Service’s work is integration events for IDPs. The service has already organized tours in the Lviv region and summer camps for internally displaced children.
