More than a million migrants crossed into Europe during 2015. This was predominantly a result of the war in Syria, but also due to ongoing violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and abuses and poverty elsewhere. During the year, Germany received the highest number of new asylum applications, at over 476,000; but it is estimated over a million people have arrived in country in total. Large numbers are reported in other European countries, and the figures are continuing to rise. Many of the people arriving have experienced significant trauma, and their new host countries face a big challenge to help people integrate and overcome these experiences. Language is often a barrier as well.
Several LMN organisations in Europe have been leading music projects with refugees, to try to address some of these issues, and provide a welcome. LMN in the UK has also lead several programmes with refugees, and we hope to develop this work further.
As part of LMN’s Menuhin Centenary conference on 16 April 2016, Nancy Smith from LMN Munich gave us an evocative description of their work, and you can view the whole presentation here.
LMN Menuhin Centenary 2016 – Music with Refugees from Live Music Now on Vimeo.
You can read a summary of the whole conference here.
Photo credit: Ivan Gonzalez
