A Rome-based singer and composer, Andrea Camerini (42) uses the medium of music to help children express themselves and transcend barriers of race, religion and gender. His first school project was with the Roma (Gypsy) community in 1997, and since then he has journeyed to South Africa and India to jointly write “songs for peace” with children and young people.
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Recently in Lucknow to develop a song with 20 children residing in under-privileged slum areas of the city, which was sung ensemble at the city’s first International Children’s Film Festival convened by City Montessori School on April 12, Camerini says: “Music makes me conscious of the inner self, and helps to develop the soul. Children too need to be able to express themselves through music to discover themselves.”
His band Nuove Tribu Zulu (New Zulu Tribe) began performing in 1991, in the year of the first Iraq war, and has since recorded three albums while maintaining a tradition of performing in Italy’s towns and cities. “We sing live in the streets to communicate with people. We fuse education and social concerns with our music,” says Camerini.
The stimulus for Camerini’s work is widespread misconceptions about the Roma people and the sustained denial of their rights. “In Italy the Roma are routinely denied government identification documents and hence the right to work or social security,” he says, lambasting the right-wing government of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.
Camerini’s India connection is through his role as art director of the Nomadic Orchestra of the World (NOW), a joint project with Chinh, a Delhi-based organisation working to preserve and spread the cultural and musical traditions of nomadic communities around the world. NOW recently staged live concerts in Delhi featuring nomadic musicians from Rajasthan and Haryana.
Often, the children Camerini works with have no previous education in music. “We embark on the journey of sound together, starting with the origin of sound, the capacity of voice, and jointly develop songs expressing our sentiments through appropriate lyrics. It is wonderful to hear what children have to say and how well they say it in limited time, if given mentoring and opportunity. In Lucknow for instance, despite my not being able to understand the local language, together with children we composed a song demanding freedom and development opportunities for children. This song was performed at the inauguration of the International Children’s Film Festival,” says the composer-singer.
Camerini is convinced that music has the curative power to save the world from darkness. “It teaches you to speak from the heart. It dissolves inhibitions and makes you an artist for life,” he says fervently.
Play on!
Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)