Project description: Despite the local legend that in southern Serbia a trumpet is placed in a child’s cradle at birth, as playing brass instruments has long been a tradition in this region, in practice this tradition has until now been reserved mostly for boys. For this reason, the Generator association from Vranje, in cooperation with the “Stevan Mokranjac” Music School in Vranje, launched the initiative to establish a Small Trumpet School for girls as part of the broader initiative Girls Play the Trumpet Too. The influence of the Marković family within the Roma community is significantly greater than that of other trumpet players, which is why Generator, together with Boban Marković and his son Marko, launched a campaign in towns and villages to encourage girls to enrol in music school. This was of crucial importance, as within the Roma community in southern Serbia there is still a social stigma around girls playing music, especially the trumpet. For this reason, the public discussion organised on World Roma Day, 8 April, also played an important role, addressing the education of Roma children within the existing education system in Serbia.
From the beginning, the plan was to work with a smaller group of girls and create an all-female trumpet band. Seven girls aged 9 to 17, coming from Pavlovac village, Vranje, Vladičin Han, and Zagužanje village (Surdulica), received training from renowned trumpet musicians Vladica Vasić and Marko Marković and formed the orchestra Trumpet Girls. They prepared intensively for two months and received a special jury award in Surdulica in the amount of 50,000 dinars. They also qualified for the competition in the pioneer trumpet orchestra category at the Guča Trumpet Festival, where they achieved a notable result. A jury representative expressed the wish to personally present the girls with recognition, praising their dedication and courage to compete. The RINA news agency published an article and produced a feature about the band, which was later broadcast on Euronews. Numerous national media outlets also reported on Trumpet Girls.
The entire project of forming a women’s trumpet orchestra aims to motivate girls to pursue music education and challenge prejudices that playing this brass instrument is shameful or socially unacceptable for girls. The success they achieved at several festivals during the summer is expected to have a positive impact on the patriarchal Roma community and enable more Roma girls to develop their talents and skills in music through participation in the Small Trumpet School or formal music education.
Grant amount: 1,600,000.00 RSD
