The Ethnic Contemporary Classical Orchestra: Parental Engagement

ECCO is a project by Musiko Musika, aimed at creating inclusive and culturally diverse music ensembles. This blog post looks in-depth at parental engagement.

One of the fundamental principles of the ECCO is that it is open to, and embraces, the wider community of the children participating in the ensemble; their parents, grandparents, carers, siblings and friends.

As well as achieving its objective of developing the spiritual, intellectual, emotional and social being of the participants, the project empowers each child to realise their potential within the social and cultural context in which they live. This means that the wider community is brought on the journey with the young people, sharing aspirations and achievements.

The ECCO leaders and facilitators are extremely interested in and committed to this aspect of the project. However, even with a lot of willingness to engage parents in this way, it is not an easy task. There are barriers and obstacles to communication and understanding, not least of which are language (written and spoken), cultural misunderstandings and prejudices, and complications arising from lack of knowledge of musical educational systems. These require time, communication, patience, imagination, understanding and the implementation of multiple strategies.

The ECCO Kensal Rise has now developed regular community workshops where songs from other languages are shared by parents, and are then woven into the repertoire for the orchestra. A parents' committee is also being established to take a role in organising and publicising events, and in the longer term there are plans to use the project to train parents as cultural leaders.

Interestingly at ECCO Stoneydown the process seems to be accelerated, because the importance of parental engagement with the project was recognised and implemented from its inception. A feeling of support from the wider community can now be felt two terms into the project, and it has led to the parents requesting that a community choir be set up to complement the orchestra.

Watch this video about parental engagement in the ECCO project:

Since the organisation's earliest projects, Musiko Musika has implemented community development as a wider strategy in all their work with children and young people. The concept of community skills development has been a major part of this.

“I think music, and learning how to express yourself through music as a language is incredibly important for children, and adults! ECCO allows children to find their own voice and I feel very lucky that my child is part of it.” Parent feedback

Read the full Musiko Musika ECCO Spotlighting Report