Artistic education Toulouse Les Orgues

The Toulouse Les Orgues Association has been running musical appreciation activities in schools and specialised institutions for more than 15 years. All workshops are led by the organist Baptiste Genniaux, and are approved by the education authorities of Haute-Garonne and the Occitanie Region.

/// OUR ACTIONS IN SCHOOLS

We provide workshops and courses suitable for pupils from the age of five through to high school.
In particular, Toulouse Les Orgues participates in the City of Toulouse’s “Passport to Art” scheme, for which it has devised three cultural itineraries.

The proposals include:

• “concert-like” visits to organs: a mini-concert and discovery of the organ from the gallery
• workshops with small-scale teaching organs
• open rehearsals during the Toulouse Les Orgues International Festival
• meetings with Festival performers
• school sessions or special concerts for younger audiences
• teacher awareness, etc.

The goals of the Toulouse Les Orgues educational programme are to:

• bring wider recognition of the wealth of instruments in Toulouse
• improve understanding of how the organ functions as a machine
• encourage children to take up a musical instrument
• introduce them to a whole range of musical sounds and styles
• help them “see” what they are hearing
• introduce students to musicians, musical works, and to cultural and heritage venues

/// OUR ACTIONS IN SPECIALISED INSTITUTIONS

Since 2008, Toulouse Les Orgues has offered weekly musical appreciation workshops at the Institute for Young Blind People.

The sessions offer an opportunity to learn how music is produced, by focusing on the instrument. The purpose of the workshop is not to achieve music of a particular quality: the level of performance is unimportant. This is an experimental initiative with children, designed to help them express themselves in music. These workshops provide moments of discovery, expression, creation and especially pleasure.

To carry out these workshops, Toulouse Les Orgues has built miniature organs that can be taken apart for transport, and installed in the Institute’s premises. Other actions have been carried out in the past with the child-psychiatry departments of the Chaurand Clinic at the Gérard Marchant Hospital Centre, the Saint-Joseph Hospital of La Grave, and the Gerontopole.

TEACHING Ressources

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Video « Make me an organ »

The film “Make me an organ” retraces in pictures the construction of the portable organ in Toulouse les Orgues by organ builder Jean Daldosso. This removable and transportable instrument was designed to meet audiences: from schools to hospitals, from performance halls to cultural centers

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