Hearing the music really opened the kids up

Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliament
in conversation with
John W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange Project
Czech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000
Jack Erwin
As you know, we’re beginning to work in Brno. We just had a very exciting session with Romany musicians in a school. As you know, the Stories Exchange Project is working on a Romany music studio project in Brno too. So: do you have any wisdom about Brno? You grew up there. Is there anything special about Brno that we should know?
Monika Horakova
Is there anything special about Brno? I came from Brno. [laughs] Well, I like Brno. I’ve spent almost my whole life there.
I’m very happy about this music studio project. I think is really perfect. This is something that was needed a long time ago, and I would like to say thank you for this idea.
We have a lot of good musicians and a lot of good singers, but you can only see a few of them in public life. And sometimes you don’t really see the best ones. I hope that the Brno music studio project will give a chance to the best ones, not just to popular singers, and that it will try to keep Romany culture alive through some CD’s or – I don’t know what.
Jack Erwin
Yes. When we brought Romany musicians from the studio project to a school in Brno the other day, the kids were actually hearing this music for the first time, and they asked a lot of questions about it – 
Monika Horakova
Yes – 
Jack Erwin But then very quickly the conversation turned to the whole issue of minority-majority relations. It was wonderful. Hearing the music really opened the kids up, and then stories, of course with the music – 
[for more on the Stories Exchange Project in Czech schools, see "Stories Exchange Education Project” in “News” on this Web page;
for more on the Brno music studio project, visit http://pribehy.ecn.cz
and/or email Tomas Knaibl, Brno coordinator of both the music studio project and the schools project:
tknaibl@hotmail.cz

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