A week-long music days were held in Kecskemét, in which a mix of Hungarian and foreign music and youth professionals took part. With the group from Poland, we had the opportunity to test many ImMusic exercises, we mainly selected from a collection based on rhythmic and solmization sounds. The training was led by László Durányik, and the location for the program was provided by the Kodály School. In addition, they also viewed the presentation of the school’s children’s choir, which highlighted that there is no age limit for implementing most of the exercises, it can be used with children, young people and even older people alike.

In the ImPulzus Creative Music Lab, ImMusic tasks come up during many sessions, which have already been incorporated into our everyday lives. In individual and group singing sessions, at our Sing&Grow events, at rehearsals before concerts, and at informal meetings, we use the exercises that we collected during the project. Since we deal with quite a large number of people whose lives have so far lacked dealing with music, it is a particularly good feeling to see that our exercises are working.

In July 2022, Edit Pálinkás took part in the Musica Eterna Roma choir competition along with the Aurin Girl’s Choir from Kecskemét. During the festival she had a number of informal discussions, in which she had the opportunity to disseminate the importance of music programs for youth not only in a professional level but for amateurs and beginners, too. There were some promising prospect to build new relationships with youth workers and to integrate a much wider range of programs into the current order of choir festivals. The nature of ImMusic as a bridge between musicians and youth workers was especially manifested here.

After the success of the previous year, we again prepared for the Őrség Contemporary Music Days with interactive singing, this time with the Vox Insana Chamber Choir founded by Csaba Tőri. The event held in Velemér, next to one of the most beautiful medieval church of Hungary, in a beautiful landscape.

Along with the Miraculum Childrens’ Choir from Kecskemét, Edit Pálinkás visited the 70th European Music Festival for Young People to disseminate the results of the ImMusic project among musicians and youth workers from all over Europe. This festival is an outstanding meeting place for professionals who work with young people and are open to music, despite the fact that this year many of the groups recovering from the epidemic were not able to participate in the festival. However, we managed to meet groups from many countries, get to know each other and discuss the objectives and effectiveness of the ImMusic program. Who knows, at the next festival, we might be the host of one of the workshops.

The holiday of volunteering awaits this year as well! Through lectures and workshops, you can get a taste of the possibilities of the Solidarity Board and, with it, the power of the community.

The EU’s volunteer program, the European Solidarity Corps, enables young people aged 18-30 to help the work of an organization or institution as volunteers. This intercultural adventure can be two-way: Hungarian young people can go to foreign organizations, or foreign young people can join the life of Hungarian organizations and institutions. Through the program’s solidarity projects, a group of Hungarian youth can respond to local social challenges. We want to share these experiences and opportunities with you through exciting lectures and project presentations, as well as workshops.

At the invitation of the Tempus Foundation, we held an online community singing session on the SOLIDARITY:ON in accordance with the epidemic measures. The singing was led by Csaba Tőri, music teacher and choir conductor. Thanks to a lot of practice during the pandemic period, we already have a lot of practice in this genre, we were able to offer the participants an enjoyable program by playing with the microphones on and off. We were delighted to see that during the recording, the organizers and the technical staff joined in with loud singing in the hall. Music really moves the soul, especially in difficult times.

You can peek inside the program – the spoken parts are only available in Hungarian, but remember, music is a universal language!