Paul Calvert spoke with Michele Cantoni from the Amwaj Children's Choir, about the difference they're making to the lives of children from Hebron and Bethlehem.

Amwaj performance at the Paris Conservatoire (27 November 2018) (Photo: Fares Mansour)

We do some concerts in churches. For us performing in churches is merely seeing the church as a performance space, where the acoustic is lovely and it's easier to sing than in dry halls, or open air.

Of course the repertoire, some of it is inspired by the Church tradition in the West. A lot of it is not from other cultures, but I would say yes at the origin of choir schools, there is the Church, but not in the case of Amwaj I would say.

Paul: Do you do special things for Christmas and Easter?

Michele: Yes indeed. We are in much demand for Christmas repertoires and so on.

We have been invited already for the past three years to do Christmas concerts. They were very fun to prepare, because the children are actually from Hebron and villages around Bethlehem, and refugee camps in Bethlehem, so the children are all Muslim. It happens to be like that. It was not a choice, it just happens to be for the areas where we teach. It was quite fun for everybody, for them and for their families, and for the Christian community in Bethlehem, to see a choir of Muslim children singing Christmas carols in the Nativity Church for instance.

Paul: You are working very closely with children. Are you seeing them change their life and turning things around? Do you hear stories of how the choir has changed their life?

Michele: Yes indeed. I see it very much in projection towards the future.

We recently spoke with a few of them about how they would see the choir in 2025. What they imagine, apart from possible marriages between members of the choir and so on, but involvement as teachers in the future of the children themselves. They have discovered possibilities that were not available until then.

Paul: Are you making a difference in the community?

Michele: I think so. At least I mean in the small circle that is around us. Yes definitely and we are hoping to get this choir to inspire others.

Paul: What is your hope for the future of the choir?

Michele: That the members of the choir feel it's an important experience for them, or it has been, if they have stopped being in the choir.

That more and more children will be able to join. Of course we need to wait in order to do that. To expand the choir we need to wait to have this generation become the next teachers of Amwaj.