On October 16th, the Christel House South Africa students joined the international string quartet, Quartet of Peace, as a part of a concert to raise funds for music education at the school.  Recently, twenty-six violins were donated to CHSA's music program, but we currently do not have a string instructor at the school.  "With the money we raise we’ll send one of our own teachers to acquire the skill and hopefully see some talented violinists emerge from our school,” said Clarke Schilder, the music teacher at CHSA.

“We are very excited by this opportunity, not only for our young learners to sing alongside such esteemed musicians and to get our violin programme up and running, but also to help create awareness among the Christel House networks and locals about what the Quartet of Peace does around the globe, which is to inspire peace and unity through music,” said Schilder.

The Quartet of Peace was formed to honor the four South African Nobel Peace Prize winners, continuing their work by bringing hope to children abandoned by inhumanity.  Each of the quartet's instruments bears a name and an inscription recognizing these great leaders, including Hope for Nelson Mandela, Peace for Bishop Desmond Tutu, Reconciliation for FW De Klerk and Freedom for Dr Albert Luthuli.  The quartet travels and performs internationally, raising funds for humanitarian causes.

Students from San Souci Girls High and Fezeka High School in Gugulethu rounded out the chorus for this remarkable event. Schilder said, "Music is our one universal language; through it so much can be achieved.”

The students experienced the process of preparing themselves through rehearsals to elaborate a formal CD.

Experts from "Formación Musical" came to the school and transformed the dining room into a recording studio. This was a unique experience to our children. They prepared their vocies with different techniques and by developing different strategies to conduct their vocal skills that the music teacher Andrea C. Sánchez learnt at the Creating Artistry workshop at Butler Univeristy.

We hope to share with you soon this musical material that the Choir from CHMX prepared for everyone!

On Monday, the 29th of June, Christel House Mexico welcomed the Indianapolis Children's Choir and The White Rock Children´s Choir from Vancouver.
They arrived at the Christel House facilities and sang eight melodies for our students and staff members. The Christel House Choir then participated by singing two pieces. At the end of their performance the Director of the Choir from Indianapolis, Henry Leck, made a donation of musical instruments and gave a cheque to buy a piece of furniture necessary to play the xylophones. They also announced a scholarship for the next school year to Andrea Sánchez Gallego, the music teacher from Christel House Mexico.
At the end of the day, our students invited members from both choirs to go on a tour of the Christel House facilities.

It was a great visit and a wonderful opportunity to build new friendships and share the love of music across cultures.

The eighth Caroline Award was celebrated on June 26th, 2009 in the Christel House facilities. This year, the main theme of the contest was Mythology. All the students from Christel House participated in two categories: drawing and writing.

The day started with the inauguration of the contest. Then our special judges and guests enjoyed a performance, with the Christel House Choir singing the songs ¨La flor de la Cantuta¨ and ¨Mariposa,¨ and the Christel House Dance Workshop dancing alongside them. Afterwards the judges and guests went on a tour around the facilities where they had the opportunity to see the drawings and the poems by the kids. Later they watched a play called “Chin y Ben,” written by one of our second grade students, Gerardo Alvarez, and performed by the theater workshop.

To conclude this special day we had a ceremony where our judges, specialists in drawing and literature, announced the winners of the contest and the Supervisor of the Zone, Guadalupe Gallardo Vite, recognized the efforts of the students and the teachers who coordinated this event.

On June 26th, 2009 students from Christel House Mexico held a concert at “Sala Nezahualcoyotl,” recognized as one of the best Concert Halls in Latin America in the heart of Mexico’s National University.

Over 2,500 people attended this concert where the students from CHMX participated by singing and playing twenty pieces. The concert was directed by Professor Guillermo J. Sánchez and by their music teacher Andrea Sánchez Gallego.

Christel House Mexico is very proud of Aldo Ortíz Martínez, a third grader at CHMX, who was the only student among three schools who sang a solo with the song “Osito Pelón.” Also Andrea Sánchez Gallego participated by singing the song “Hymne” by E. Live.