mdw alumnus Max Calanducci leads music workshop for children:

"Discover the world of sounds" - nature as a sound experience

Music educator and mdw alumnus Max Calanducci gave a music workshop for children for the first time at the Gustav Mahler Musikwochen 2024 in Toblach. In cooperation with the Orchestra for the Earth, the first chamber orchestra in the world to actively raise awareness of climate change, nature became a sound experience for children. They searched for sounds, produced them themselves (body percussion, orchestra and in nature) and recorded and processed them using the Koala Sampler app.

What do we hear when it's quiet? What do nuts and apples sound like? What sounds can we make ourselves? What does an oboe sound like when we change its pitch? Each child experimented with sounds and created a mini composition. After a bike ride to the composer's cottage in Toblach, where Gustav Mahler spent the summer months from 1908-1910 composing, the children's compositions were premiered together. The cows also improvised and made the audience smile.

The workshop ended with a tree planting.

Nature was a source of creativity and relaxation for composers such as Gustav Mahler. Listening can heighten the senses and awareness of nature, which should be a high priority in times of climate change.

The project was initiated by the mdw's Alumni Relations Office and realized with the support of the Gustav Mahler Musikwochen Toblach, the Euregio Kulturzentrum Gustav Mahler Toblach Dolomiten, the Gustav Mahler Komponierhäuschen Toblach, and the Orchestra for the Earth. Special thanks go to Max Calanducci.