A Project in Cyprus and Portugal Bridges Passion and Profession

 
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A Project in Cyprus and Portugal Bridges Passion and Profession

Tasos Kyriakou, Music Teacher and Project Manager, Sistema Cyprus, and Margarida Abrantes, Coordinator, Orquestra Geração

10-01-2025

Marketers training, Sistema Cyprus. Photo: Hasan Sebastian Labedz.

What does it take to turn a young musician’s passion into a meaningful career? For Sistema Cyprus and Orquestra Geração, the answer lies in real, structured opportunity, tailored to young people who are too often overlooked by traditional systems.

Our two organizations have long collaborated on other successful European projects. Building on that experience, and seeing the similar challenges our students face, we teamed up once more to create the Erasmus+ project “InMus: From Youth to Professionalism.”

With InMus, we aimed to bridge the gap between musical training and professional life, offering career guidance, job skills, and practical knowledge to our young musicians. Currently, many young musicians are navigating economic hardship, a lack of access to professional networks, and a dearth of resources for initiating a professional music career. What they need is direction, tools, and opportunities that will help them imagine and build a future in music, on their own terms.

Our two-year project started in September 2023 and concluded in August 2025. As a first step, our organizations hosted workshops on employability in music. Students were trained on topics ranging from budgeting skills to self-promotion, from finding unique performance opportunities to expanding their network.

As many readers will know, self-promotion can be a difficult, draining part of this work—but our session leaders centered creativity and community. In one videographer-led session, students teamed up in groups of four or five for a practical challenge. Each group had 15 minutes to pick an object (or a willing teammate) to become the “star” of a poster they would be designing. The real test was putting into practice what they had just learned: scouting the best location, experimenting with angles, making the most of the available light, and framing the shot like a pro. The activity sharpened their photography skills, yes, but it really sparked new creativity (and a few laughs, as mugs, instruments, and unsuspecting classmates were suddenly glamorous poster models).

Job shadowing, Orquestra Geração. Photo: Margarida Abrantes.

We also arranged job shadowing, offering young musicians the chance to experience what a day in the life of a music performer, a producer, or an organizer really looks like. In these moments, whether observing musicians in rehearsals and on stage, assisting organizations with festivals, or jamming in a jazz session, many begin to see a roadmap toward a professional career where before there was uncertainty.

And no career in music is the same. A particularly meaningful experience for some of our students was their participation in allamata, a traditional Cypriot wedding custom. In this ceremony, the bride and groom get ready in their respective homes, surrounded by family, while traditional music (played on string instruments such as violins and lutes) sets the atmosphere. Before the job shadowing, most of our students were not familiar with this tradition, let alone imagining that it could lead to well-paid career opportunities.

To ensure that the learning continues beyond borders, we’ve also created two key resources:

Job shadowing, Sistema Cyprus. Photo: Nikoletta Polydorou.
  1. A comprehensive guide designed to support other organizations around the world in offering similar trainings.
  2. A series of eight short video tutorials providing accessible content on multiple topics from budgeting to marketing, from festival performances to wedding receptions.

You can access these resources for free on our organizations’ websites and on YouTube, or by clicking on the links above, as we believe that guidance should never be a privilege.

As InMus concludes, we are just beginning to understand its impact. Our hope is that the knowledge shared, tools developed, and dreams sparked will travel to classrooms, orchestras, studios, and the careers of young musicians across the world.

As educators, we are not just preparing young people to “get jobs”—we are helping them find their place in a professional world that has historically been inaccessible to many. When you give young people the tools to shape their futures, they build something stronger than a career. They build a life with music at its center.

Accessible Learning, Allamata, Budgeting, Career Development, Community, Creativity, Cross-Border Learning, Cyprus, Economic Hardship, Educational Resources, Employability, Erasmus+, European Projects, European Young Musicians, Festival Performance, InMus Project, Jazz, Job Shadowing, Job Skills, Life with Music, Lutes, Marketing, Music Careers, Music Education, Music Educator Initiatives, Music Organization, Music Performance, Music Production, Networking, October 2025, Orquestra Geração, Photography Skills, Portugal, Professional Music, Professional Opportunities, Self-Promotion, Sistema Cyprus, String Instruments, Traditional Cypriot Wedding, Video Tutorials, Violins, Wedding Receptions, Youth to Professionalism

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