The International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation serves as the international coordination centre for the MUS-E® network, which is composed of various national associations in Europe and Israel specifically tasked to incorporate the creative arts in traditional education methods at primary schools in their respective countries. Through this program, professional artists to share their passion and knowledge in primary schools where they collaborate with teachers in the classroom to embed music, dance and visual arts in the curriculum. The aim is to stimulate new, creative ways of thinking amongst the youngest members of society, and to combat the development of violent, racist or socially excluding behaviours and attitudes.
The Foundation organizes international artistic residencies for young artists from diverse cultures drawing on our network of artist experts from around Europe and beyond. These residencies are designed to encourage the exchange of knowledge and good practices between artists and enable the co-creation of new works. These creative laboratories lay the foundations for the future artist ambassadors of our MUS-E® network and its partners.
The Foundation acts as both a leader and a participant in socio-cultural and educational European projects in the areas of intercultural dialogue and social inclusion of children and young people from lesser-known minorities. Recent examples include Music4Ron and Art4Rom, two initiatives promoting Roma values and culture, involving partners, artists, educators and hundreds of Roma and non-Roma children in four European countries. Many of the projects have involved the cooperation of the MUS-E® network and have resulted in the development of innovative training methodologies for the European educational sector. We also develop together with our partners unique projects such as the recent and ongoing Homelands, places of belonging project, a co-creation project for and by refugee artists taking place in Brussels.
An abiding legacy of Yehudi Menuhin and his collaboration with artists of diverse backgrounds is the unique and high-quality annual concert of performance which we organise, bringing together several cultures in harmonious dialogue through music or other performing arts. Such events convey a strong message of tolerance and understanding and are dynamic demonstration of social inclusion at European level. Since 1992, the Foundation has united the voices of different cultures in more than 50 live concerts and dance performances, featuring both world-renowned artists and newcomers. Before his death in 1999, Yehudi Menuhin presented among others Stéphane Grappelli, Ravi Shankar, Marcel Marceau and Myriam Makeba on stage. The tradition continues today, with famous names such as Jorge Chaminé continuing to voice Yehudi Menuhin’s powerful message of harmony through music.