Performance has always been an essential part of the culture at the Kibera School for Girls (KSG). Our girls are constantly singing, dancing, and reciting poems – and they love it! Last weekend, we expanded this tradition by inviting world-renowned musicians and music educators, Nina Stern and Matilda Gianpietro, for a music workshop with our teachers and girls.
During the music workshop, our students had their very first brush with formal music training. They struggled with the Bs, As and Gs of recorders, multi-tiered harmonies, and music terminology – and came out beautifully on the other side! This is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship with music. We look forward to integrating the music curriculum into our school day – to keep their recorder fingers sharp and move them towards more complex instruments over the next few years. Almost every day at KSG we see how performance makes our girls confident, disciplined, and creative, and we can’t wait to see how the addition of recorders will impact our girls in the future!
Nina is an internationally recognized recorder player and Julliard Professor. She has been called a “recorder virtuoso” by the New York Times, and plays the recorder, clarinet, and chalumeaux. She has developed music programs around East Africa, including Burundi and another school in Kibera. Matilda has been teaching music at Montessori schools for nearly 30 years, and teaching the Montessori music curriculum to Montessori teachers for nearly 20.
