Our Story
"We dream a society in which the teaching of music, the training, the updating and the research are the center of the social life. An integrated system of education that guarantees the practical learning of music for everyone, starting from the early childhood. A Country in which the music is a universal channel of comunication, that reduces the distances among the people, the different ages and abilities, the etnies, the religions. We want to be a School of Music usefull for all of this."
WHERE WE ARE
Our School has a unique quality in the panorama of the musical didactics: it’s the only school that propose specific activities for every age, and every possible formative objective. It is as if in our inner cohabit a nursery, a school of infancy, an elementary school, a middle school, an high school, a università, and a univerity for the third age. This our own characteristic sets us in the condition to be able to realize suitable courses for every demand and to follow our students for many years in their own course of studies. Our project can be synthesized in the slogan “ A School in Ten Colors!”. The colors represent the different course of study proposed, in according to provide an exhaustive answer for every necessity, from the most elementary propedeutica to the professional formation.
The Scuola Popolare di Musica Donna Olimpia was founded in January 1976. It has been attended by over 40.000 students and there have been hundreds of professional collaborations with artists and teachers from all over the world; the school is a founding member of the C.S.P.M.- Coordinamento delle Scuole Popolari di Musica di Roma (Coordination of the Popular Schools of Music in Rome), and of the “Musica in Culla” (Music In the Crib) national network, and is a promoter of O.S.I., the Italian Orff-Schulwerk;; it is a licensed body for training and development for the Ministry of Education and for the Municipality of Rome. For more than twenty years the school has been constantly upgrading activities also with the contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and has implemented professional development courses with contributions from the European Social Fund for the Lazio Region; Membership to the Orff-Schulwerk Forum Salzburg.
LOOK INSIDE
Our activities are organised in different sectors:
INSTITUTIONAL TRAINING
Every year, about 500 pupils of all ages attend the school; proposed activities are organised in Departments: Early Childhood (0/3 years), Junior 4/13 years), Adult (14/99). The Departments are each directed by a Coordinator who harmonises the teachers’ work and makes sure each pupil is well tutored. Collective music, performance, contamination of musical genres, improvisation and pedagogic research: these are the keywords of our didactic itinerary.
ACTIVITIES IN SCHOOLS
The school proposes specialised operators for didactic activities in nurseries, infant schools, elementary schools and middle schools in Rome and the province, involving thousands of children from 0 to 13 years of age each year.
TRAINING AND REVISION
Every year we propose courses on “Methodology and Practise of the Orff-Schulwerk”, Piano Didactics”, and activities related to early childhood with a project named “Musica in Culla” (Music In the Crib), with hundreds of participants per year. In 2008 the school had the honour of successfully hosting the world commissions of ECME (Early Childhood Music Education) and MISTEC (Music in Schools and Teacher Education), for their first time in Italy.
MUSIC AND SOCIETY
The school promotes network relations with Institutions on territory and, through participation to public advisory bodies or third sector organisations, supports all possible initiatives so that in a country with our history and cultural tradition, the State and the local authorities will invest in this sector as much as the other European countries do. The School also promotes a variety of other solidarity projects and activities.
One of this project “Note di Pace“ (Notes of Peace) in 2008 won the prestigious “ISME – GIBSON International Awards in Music Education 2008” international prize.
CONCERTS, FESTIVALS AND EXHIBITIONS
The school has always dedicated special attention towards the production of performances. The most important events realised in the past few years are: “Ballando, Ballando…”, “Festa de’ Noantri”, “Festa di San Giovanni”, “I Concerti di San Lorenzo”, “Intermundia”, “Le Traianee”, “Musiques Sans Frontiers”, “Ostia Musica Festival”, “Passaggi Segreti”, “Prove d’Orchestra”, “Ricercare in Cinque Tempi”, “Sogni di una Notte di Mezza Estate”, “Strabilia – Viaggio nel Mondo dello Spettacolo per Bambini e Ragazzi”.