On the 4th of May, we held the final event of the project Homelands, places of belonging celebrating and shedding a spotlight on 6 monhts of co-creation and fruitfult collaboration between 8 refugee-artists and partners from the socio-cultural sector of Brussels! This is just to get a taste of the event… Pictures by Kristof Claeys.

On the 10th of December 2018, the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation collaborated with Emergences asbl for the conference of Pierre Rabhi, a dear fiend to Yehudi Menuhin, on “La Sobriété Heureuse” at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). On this occasion, the orchestra in residence at IYMF – The Brussels Chamber Orchestra (BCO) – gave a unique performance.

One of the highlights of the year 2018  was the “Diversity Makes Music” concert in Flagey – one of the most important cultural venues of Brussels – on 21 November 2018. Through this concert we wanted to address an contemporary issue dear to us all, namely the migration crisis. This unique concert was a dialogue between East and West, retracing the journey of the Syrian dancer Ahmad Joudeh who was forced to leave his country and travel to Europe. Whereas policies and politicians often fail to create links between very different populations, between the welcoming and the welcomed, artists have a special talent for building bridges and highlighting the universality of what unites us rather than what separates us. This was the message conveyed by this event, which was a great success and a dynamic demonstration of social inclusion at European level.

© Pictures Doron Chmiel