Netherlands

Musicians Without Borders started in the Netherlands in 1999, when a choir and small orchestra led by musician and activist Laura Hassler performed a war memorial concert during the Kosovo War. Their repertoire: folk songs from the Balkans, spanning different languages and ethnicities. The choice of music was a poignant one; the Yugoslav wars had consumed much of the Balkan region, while the rest of Europe helplessly watched daily news images of mass killings, bombed-out villages, and refugees.

In 2014, arts education in the Netherlands was in a dire state. In particular, music education had suffered from years of budget cuts in primary schools. There was an increased focus on the “case subjects,” such as language and math, as well as changes in the teacher training colleges, where only one or two modules of music education remained in the curriculum.