Abstract

“Professionalization in Exile through Music. The Case of a Musician in the Orchestra Orpheus XXI (Jordi Savall)”

Orpheus XXI is an orchestra founded by Catalan conductor and gambist Jordi Savall in 2016 upon receiving a grant from the European Union’s Creative Europe programme. The orchestra targets migrant musicians. It allows them to continue to practice their profession as performers in exile and they are also mobilized in the framework of workshops where they teach to children and teenagers. These workshops are places of transmission of musical repertoires of which these artists are the masters. The project was implemented in France, Spain (Catalonia) and Norway from 2016 to 2018. Since 2018, pedagogical workshops have spread into Germany under the name Orpheus XXI NRW.
This article examines the life course (parcours), biography and career of a refugee musician playing with the Orpheus XXI NRW orchestra, Azad Helez. The three notions evoked above are tools meant to uncover how the German institutions he evolves in deal with the question of alterity. The life course (parcours) pertains to the paths that the person takes in the private or public spaces that make up his or her existence, as well as the environments (professional, personal, familial, institutional) that he or she encounters. The musician’s agency is thus highlighted. The career focuses solely on the work environment and analyses a person’s path within this world. The biography is the construction of a narrative, the establishment of continuity a posteriori by the actor’s reflexivity, for an audience. The issues are thus to observe, on the one hand, how Azad adjusts to the structures of his host society, and on the other hand, how the structures apprehend music: as a cultural device at the service of society? as a device for the inclusion of people who find themselves in a situation of migration? A biographical approach allows us to take into account this articulation between the individual and institutional scales.
Based on an ethnographic fieldwork conducted with this musician, this article addresses the role of music in the way a migrant person can build a professional career in his host country. Azad engages in professionalization through music in the different stages of his journey from Syrian Kurdistan to his host country Germany. How can music be a vector of inclusion for people in a situation of forced migration? By constructing his biography – his childhood, the learning of music, the different stages of his exile – and by analysing the way he leads his life in Germany, we can uncover the processes accounting for Azad’s conducting his musical activities today, and for making music a tool for professional inclusion, in a constant tension between professional interests and personal concerns for his family.
Indeed, throughout his exile, Azad arises as a musician. He teaches music, composes, carries out projects, participates in the workshops of Orpheus XXI NRW with whom he gives concerts, plays in several ensembles. His peers offer him recognition, which allows him to achieve the status of musician. He is committed to practising highly quality music, and views his skills as a source of income. He engages with musical structures on which he can rely, such as the Orpheus XXI NRW ensemble and the Landesmusikakademie in Cologne, where he has the status of a learner; the Musikschule in Bochum and the Salar Music shop, where he is a teacher. In the case of Azad, professionalization through music is a vector for social and professional inclusion in Germany, in the land of NRW. On the other hand, Azad is confronted with the instability of the profession of musician, which prompts him to ponder over following alternative careers and to rekindle past interests.