Folklang

Folklang is an intercultural ensemble which plays traditional music from all parts of the world, reinvents this music, lives it, and shares it with all.

The project lives from the contributions that the musicians make; every week a member of Folklang presents a new tune from a different country. The group learns the music by ear and without the use of notation. The process is guided by a professional team of musicians.

Participation is open and for free so that all who love making music may find a home, regardless of their status, age, origin or musical ability.

This way an exchange can take place at eye-level allowing for friendships to be formed. At the same time, one can gain insight into other cultures as well as one’s own culture.

Through public workshops (tune-learnings), jam sessions and concerts, Folklang invites all to come and celebrate culture, friendship, and binding power of music.

Learning tunes from one another is inspiring, the jams are spontaneous and wild, the concerts are magical and will not be forgotten.

In May 2017, Folklang was named the ,Integration Project of the Month, by the German Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF):
https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Projekte/DE/ProjekteDesMonats/170530-mai-projekt-des-monats.html

Our goals are:

• to bring people together through music, and allow friendships to form regardless of age or culture.

• to enjoy making music together, whereby the absence of musical notation creates a unique atmosphere; your head is not stuck in the sheet music but rather: you actually hear what those around you are playing.

• to learn new pieces and get them out into the world. But the tunes are not only fun to play: any time you play a tune, it becomes part of you, along with the culture which it comes from.

• to meet people at eye-level. Through the constant perspective change between ‘learner’ and ‘teacher’ one is never above the others.

• to enrichen musicians and audiences by opening them up to something new. Music creates a universal common denominator and allows integration to take place without one even noticing it.

• to treat one another with respect as musicians and as people.

Our project is for:

• all those who enjoy playing traditional music from around the world.

Until recently, Folklang was a project at the local college VHS Tübingen and was funded by the city of Tübingen and the German Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF). This funding has now run out.

In the last two years a community of at least 100 musicians from all over the world has come together in Tübingen around this project, and life wouldn’t be the same without it. In order to not lose what we have built up, we want to keep Folklang going in form of a project carried by anon-profit association.

The goal of this crowdfunding project is to set up this non-profit association, so that it can exist with the help of member contributions, public funds, and private sponsors. To do this, the structure of the association must be built up, funding must be applied for, and members as well as sponsors must be won. On top of this, we want the tune-learning workshops to continue (for free - as always) during this funding period so that musicians may continue to meet and play without interruption.

Due to the project’s large scope, all this cannot be done through voluntary work alone.

This is why we need your support!

This is how your money will be invested:

• salary for project management: 9.200 €
• salary for musical Team: 13.000 €
• Crowdfunding-Fees: 1.750 €
• Rent for worshop space: 550 €
• Administration: 500 €

If we reach our Funding threshold of 10.000 €, we can continue with Folklang at least in a reduced version (one musical leader, lower cost for project management) until roughly the end of November. It also gives us some more time to find secure financing of the project for the future.
Any money we receive on top of this will give us more time to keep going and eventually reach the desired number of people in the team: four musical directors and one project manager. This way we could continue to guarantee high quality workshops and concerts.
Our expenses in detail:
Project management: areas of responsibility include supporting and developing the musical team, continuing to build and maintain the Folklang Community and its partners, and applying for further funding.

Musical team: areas of responsibility include supporting the participants in teaching and learning new tunes, arranging the tunes for concerts, rehearsing with the orchestra, and supporting the group-dynamic processes.

Rent: rent for our rehearsal space in which we hold our tune-learnings and workshops.

Administration: accounting, general fees, offfice supplies etc.

In addition, financially disadvantaged participants are supported so that they too have the opportunity to participate. For example, they receive travel expenses for concerts outside of Tübingen.