in the northern districts of Marseille, children take mandolin lessons

Very popular at the beginning of the last century, the mandolin is now taught to 200 children from the difficult neighborhoods of Marseille, at the initiative of a renowned musician.

It’s an old instrument from the 18th century that is getting a new lease of life in the cities of Marseille: the mandolin, this small lute with a short neck. Thanks to Vincent Beer Demander’s project, 200 children are learning to play in eight schools in difficult areas of the city. Half of them have even joined an orchestra: the Mandolin Orchestra of the Minots of Marseille opens the doors of the conservatory to them.

In a school in the northern districts of Marseille, a dozen students, seated in a circle, repeat the gestures on the four strings of their mandolin. Before taking lessons, most had never seen this instrument, very popular at the beginning of the last century, in the Mediterranean basin: “It’s an old instrument from Marseille,” rejoices one of them. “I’m proud because it’s good to see an instrument from our city”adds the other.

“Give all children a chance”

Sarah, Safia, Tafridja and Fanta are in CE2 : “We’re so lucky when we play the mandolin!”, “I want to be a musician, it’s so good.” “We can do concerts, we have already done two and we were proud of ourselves because our parents applauded us, it felt good.” “At the same time, we’re lucky to make mandolin because it’s expensive.”

Their mandolins cost around a hundred euros but they are loaned for free. The musician Vincent Beer-Demander created the Orchester de Mandolin des Minots de Marseille to open the doors of the conservatory to children and identify talents.

“The goal is to give all children a chance to have access to music by going into the neighborhoods, identifying children who we would never have been able to identify because they do not necessarily have access to music. ‘information that the conservatory is a public and free establishment’

Vincent Beer-Ask

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“There, we give them the opportunity to have the same chances as children who are well informed. I take the example, this year, of a little guitarist, called Mohammed, who passed the competition for entered the conservatory at age 6. We are very proud to do this work”, adds Vincent Beer-Demander.

Mandolin teacher, Catherine Arquez, confirms this enthusiasm : “There are emotions even in the parents’ eyes, of pride. Because they arrive at the conservatory and some would never have thought they could come, even visit, take a look.” GThanks to this project, children will soon even be able to go to Naples and Madeira to meet other little apprentice mandolinists.