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MUSICAL RHAPSODY The Monthly Newsletter of Rhapsody- Education Through Music Volume 4, June 2013 Sound is everywhere. It is there in the whirring of cycle wheels, in the chirping of birds, in the incessant rington es of cell phones around us. But we are so lost in the barrage and clutter of noise that we sometimes forget to hear the music amidst all the chaos. We at Rhapsody have spent the past month training ourselves to listen to the music. To visualise music in everyday life, to hear, and most importantly, to teach the art of listening and singing to the 45,000 children who will learn from our programs this year. These 45,000 children come from all walks of life. They study in our 40+ partner schools, live in Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode and tiny villages that dot the Chennai-Bangalore route. Some are driven to Rhapsody class in cars. Others walk to school on dirt roads. Many are first generation learners of music. Some children have special needs, and study away from more ‘mainstream’ schools. But all of them come to experience the joy of music, to sing and have fun, and to discover what music and sound is all about. The journey over the past year has been incredibly rewarding. Starting with 3 schools and 2 employees, the team has grown in number and confidence. We thank each and every one of you for your love and support. We hope that you will continue to sing with us, and experience the unadulterated joy of children singing. You can have a firsthand experience of the work that we do at the inauguration of the flagship Music Literacy Project on the occasion of World Music Day on the 21 st of June, 2013. The Music Literacy Project, brainchild of Sriram Ayer of the NalandaWay Foundation and Rhapsody Founder Anil Srinivasan, will take curriculum and teacher training in music to various Corporation of Chennai schools. The project has the very gracious support of the Corporation of Chennai, and we hope that this will be the start of wonderful work in the arts for every single child studying in every school across the city. And with that, we invite you to read on, and listen on! -Team Rhapsody Music Literacy Project: On the occasion of World Music Day ( 21st of June), we are inaugurating a year-long programme with the Corporation of Chennai schools, for musical curriculum upgrades and teacher training, in addition to classroom teaching from some of our trainers. At 11 AM, that day, the Joint Commissioner of the Chennai Corporation, Mr Venkatesh IAS will be witness to a special programme of music sung by Corporation school kids and city school kids at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore. The event is open to the public. Children from different city schools will sing alongside their counterparts from Chennai Corporation Schools. The songs chosen for the occ asion are in multiple languages. Both Anil Srinivasan (on the piano) and Vedanth Bh aradwaj (on guitar) will perfo rm with the children, who have been trained by Dr Sudha Raja - Principal Faculty, Rhapsody and Shruthi Vishwanath- Program Manager, Rhapsody. Music and the Globe: The extracurricular module ‘Music and the Globe’ is now running in 30 centres in Chennai, Coimbatore and Erode. To know your nearest centre and whether Rhapsody is running in your school, email us at [email protected]. From World Music Day 2012 to World Music Day 2013: Year 2012 2013 Number of schools 3 43 Number of Students Reached 3000 45000 Number of Trainers 1 13 Total Number of Employees 3 18
