The Score | Settling in With Music in Kalamazoo

Michigan’s Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra added a new education initiative this spring called Orchestra Rouh, for children of refugee families recently resettled in Kalamazoo. Rouh means both “hope” and “spirit” in Arabic, and the new orchestra, a joint effort of the KSO and the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo, offers music instruction four afternoons per week to children of Syrian and other refugee families. Teachers are bilingual in English and Arabic, and music from Arabic and Western traditions is incorporated. The program was founded and is led by violinist Ahmed Tofiq, cellist Bashdar Sdiq, and Arabic instructor Hend Ezzat Hegab, who use social and learning activities to help reduce isolation for refugee families and speed up children’s English-language acquisition. Tofiq and Sdiq, both from Iraqi Kurdistan, recently completed master’s degrees in music at Western Michigan University, and have previously taught and toured with the Youth Orchestra of Iraq. String instruments are being donated by Meyer Music of Kalamazoo, and Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo is donating rehearsal space.