From August 6 – 12, 2023 young adults from seven countries participated in the ‘European Youth Week’ of the Kolping Youth Europe, which took place this year in Szeged (Hungary). The motto of the youth meeting was “Where words fail, music speaks! Musical development for Youth”.
What is music basically? How do you read music and how did musical notation come into being? How does a simple melody become a complex canon? How do you write songs yourself? How can we form a choir from a broadly mixed group and organize a small concert? And how can music connect us beyond countries, languages and cultures? These were the questions the participants dealt with during the youth week organized by the Kolping Youth Hungary.
The main goal of the week was to organize and perform a short public concert in the city center of Szeged. The young adults, who had a wide range of previous musical knowledge, from complete beginners to professional choir singers, were all challenged in their own way: They had a week to search for, compose or write pieces of music, rehearse them and perform them in front of an audience at the end. The concert was designed to draw the young people out of their comfort zone, to instill a strong sense of community, and to boost their confidence that anyone can enjoy music with a little practice.
A conductor and a choir director from Hungary accompanied the young adults in this task and prepared them for this challenge with exciting workshops on note reading, harmonies, and singing lessons.
After five days of intense work, cultural exchange, and lively evenings, a ten-minute flash mob concert was put together, based on various parts of the workshops. From the beautiful four-part traditional amerindian song “Evening Rise”, to the US gospel song “Down by the Riverside”, to the well-known “Lion sleeps tonight” – with the lyrics rewritten – and concluded with a percussion piece, each participant was able to bring their strengths to this performance and discover something new.
In order to strengthen the sense of community, besides the musical content, there were also many cultural and touristic activities: an exciting tour through Szeged including a visit to the fourth largest active synagogue in the world and the wonderful Szeged Cathedral; relaxing and bathing at the river Tisza as well as a visit to the national historical memorial park Ópusztaszer, today’s location of the incredible 1800 m2 large Feszty Panorama. This intensive week was rounded off with the international evenings, where each country presented itself with national specialties and offered a glimpse into the world of music, with several folk dances also being demonstrated and danced along.
Through the music and singing lessons, the young adults not only learned new skills, but also got to know themselves better. And with the newly written lyrics the first building block was laid to create an anthem of the Kolping Youth in Europe, which hopefully will get more verses in all national languages in the future and thus strengthen the bond between the countries. The participants are looking forward to the next meeting, the General Assembly of the Kolping Youth Europe from April 18-21, 2024, which will take place together with the Continental Convention of Kolping Europe in Timisoara, Romania.
The Kolping Youth Europe thanks the Kolping Youth Hungary for the excellent local organization and expresses its gratitude to the Renovabis Foundation, Kolping Europe, Kolping Germany, the Hungarian Alsópahok Foundation and Kolping Switzerland for their generous support, without which such an event would not have been possible.
Heinz Strässle, Member of the Board of the Kolping Youth Europe