Paul Calvert spoke with Ahmad Al Azza from Sounds of Palestine.

Ahmad: We start with children from six years old and we continue with them. The children we take have to be in the first grade, six years old, then every year they finish a music academic year with us. We believe in 10 years, once they are in high school, they will be able to apply and be accepted with any European music university. So we are preparing them to be professional musicians and they will pass the audition in the future.

Paul: How many children attend?

Ahmad: We have 110 children.

Paul: How many children have you had coming through the doors?

Ahmad: We have lots of requests, but our capacity is not more than 110. Actually our capacity is 100, but we had pressure and we took 10 children extra. We are like a snowball, every year we add another class, so when we started in 2011 and 12 we started with first graders and the next year we had first graders and second graders. Then the third year we have first, second and third and now we have first, second, third and fourth. We also work with kindergartens.

Paul: Do you work with children that have special needs as well?

Ahmad: Yes, since we are community music we do not only take on the skilful children, but also we take the children that have different problems like trauma or autism. As long as he could develop himself within years we keep him, unless this situation needs very special treatment. We don't give up easily and so far it didn't happen, but yes we do work with special needs.

Paul: Is music a good therapy for them?

Ahmad: Music is a great therapy for them. We have done some research with one of the universities, in comparison between children in the same classroom, those who are attending the music lessons and those who are not. We found out that those who are attending the music lessons have become better in focusing and concentrating; they have better marks and they have a better attitude and behaviour in treating other classmates.

Paul: So you are really changing the whole of the child?

Ahmad: To tell you the truth, yes. Especially you could see those children who come from a hard background in their families, especially if they had a loss of their families and stuff, music lets them behave much better.

Paul: Does playing a musical instrument increase their self-confidence?

Ahmad: It does. We do several performances a year, so when you give the child a chance to go on theatre and auditorium and perform in front of hundreds of people, this will increase the self-confidence, because he goes and does something in front of everyone.

Paul: Do you get the chance to travel with the kids?