The UMUT Project was designed in partnership between Ton Talente e.V. from Lübeck, Germany and Anadolu Kültür, with the aim of supporting adults, youth, and children through the arts—particularly through the power of making music together—in provinces such as Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, and Diyarbakır, where harsh living conditions persist in the aftermath of the February 6 Earthquakes.

The empowering and community-building potential of the Community Music Approach  emphasizes cultural and linguistic diversity, inclusivity, and the expansion of creative means of expression. Based on this approach, we set out to develop and implement music-based workshops built around sound, rhythm, body, and movement to support communities in the Earthquake regions.. The goal was to create an elementary music practice to be carried out by local communities themselves, and train them to deliver workshops tailored to specific target groups with a wide range of needs and capacities.

Although the initial preparatory work began six months after the Earthquake in 2023, the project officially launched in May 2024. The first phase took place in three cities in 2024, followed by a second phase focused on Adıyaman in 2025. Fundraising efforts are currently underway for the third phase, planned for 2026.

 

What is Community Music? What does Empowerment through Community Music mean?

Community music generally refers to a collective music-making process that is fluid, adaptable to needs and circumstances, inclusive and participatory. It embraces alternative learning methods and experimentation, and is open to diverse global traditions of sound and musical expression. Community music activities can be designed to respond to a shared problem, a social issue, or the common goals of a group coming together at a specific moment. At the same time, they often include a strong emphasis on free creation and improvisation. This approach promotes creativity and embodies an egalitarian attitude—far more open, inviting, and less restrictive than the frameworks typically imposed by formal arts education.

Community music practices include a wide range of exercises aimed at developing musical skills—such as vocal and breathing exercises, rhythm work and body percussion, playing instruments, creating melodies, writing multilingual songs, collective composition, and multilingual polyphonic choir work.

One of the core principles of community music is that participants are not required to be musicians or have previous musical experience. On the contrary, it is rooted in the democratizing power of music-making. Activities such as singing, playing instruments, or keeping rhythm are valued not only as artistic expressions, but as shared experiences that foster social cohesion, collective action, mutual attunement, and active listening within a community.

In community music workshops or gatherings, individual expression and group creativity are activated simultaneously. The approach holds a critical stance towards hierarchical classifications like “good musician” or “high-quality music,” which are often normalized through conventional standards of artistic skill or mystification of personal talent. Instead, community music encourages participants to experiment with instruments, explore their voices, and adopt an open, process-oriented mindset.

While doing all this, it also aims to support individuals in expressing the issues they care about through art and in developing their own “musical voice,” while creating space for the community’s diverse voices to rise together.

Community music is also enriched by its multidisciplinary nature. It encourages crossovers between art forms—offering countless possibilities to intertwine music with visual arts, poetry, or creative drama, for example.

After crises or disasters, community music can play a significant role in restoring individual and collective strength, and in supporting processes of healing, recovery, and creative production. The discovery of one’s own capacities and inner resources, as well as the rebuilding of self-confidence, are essential for regaining a sense of grounding and resilience after traumatic experiences. Equally important is the capacity to act collectively through creative and participatory methods. In this sense, music unlocks artistic co-creation processes that reinforces the sense of belonging and togetherness.

1. UMUT: MELODIES TOGETHER – 2024

Believing in the power of the community music approach, we launched the first phase of the project UMUT: Empowerment through Community Music under the name UMUT: Melodies Together between May and December 2024 in Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, and Diyarbakır.

Designed with a long preparatory period in order to gain a deeper understanding of the conditions and needs in Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, and Diyarbakır, the project began with a preliminary field study where we focused on direct contact with local actors to observe the field and identify needs. This step was a vital prerequisite to shaping the Community Music Trainer Training with locally grounded and needs-responsive content.

Between May and August 2024, the Anadolu Kültür team carried out field visits in the three cities to better understand the current realities and needs. The insights gathered were then shared with our project partner in Germany, as well as with the invited artists and trainers, through a series of online meetings. Based on these inputs, we co-developed the content and calendar of the workshops and established local partnerships for implementation.

In September 2024, we launched a three-week intensive field program with a team composed of musicians from Germany, the UK, and Turkey, arts educators and interpreters. The UMUT project was carried out in three cities and included a series of mobile workshops with different target groups, a trainer training program, meetings with local musicians, and joint Jam Sessions (improvised performances).

Community Music Workshops with Women, Youth, and Children

In the UMUT Project, our top priority was to collaborate with local organizations already part of Anadolu Kültür’s existing networks. We partnered with institutions working with women, youth, and children in the project cities to implement the activities.

These organizations included the FİSA Children’s Rights Center, Kömür Cultural Center, and the Önce Çocuklar (Children First) Association; the Dreaming of the Future Youth Centers within UmutKent, run in partnership with SKYÇD and Bir İz Association; and various local units of KEDV (Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work) in different container settlements.

Together with our musicians and interpreters, we held two-day music workshops for women, youth, and children hosted by these local institutions.

Empowering Civil Society Workers: Nurturing Our Well-Being through Community Music

We began by meeting with representatives and staff members of NGOs operating in container settlements or in heavily affected areas of the three cities. These meetings gave us the opportunity to hear directly from civil society workers and volunteers about their working conditions and the intensity of their daily responsibilities. Many expressed a strong need for self-expression and for spaces of relief through music and the arts.

They also shared that "arts-based staff care programs" were virtually nonexistent in Adıyaman and Kahramanmaraş. In response, we quickly adapted our program and launched workshops series entitled “Supporting Well-being through Community Music: Encounters with Civil Society Workers and Volunteers.” We carried out these workshops in Adıyaman with Dayanışma İnsanları and in Diyarbakır with the support of various local institutions. 

One of the key challenges verbalized was the lack of accessible opportunities and collaborations to promote artistic expression locally in these cities. As Anadolu Kültür, we connected local organizations with each other. For example, in Kahramanmaraş, we facilitated a meeting between Açık Sahne Akademisi and SKYÇD’s Dreaming of the Future Youth Center, to pave the way for future joint music-based programs with young people.

Community Music Trainer Training in Diyarbakır

Based on the insights and knowledge gathered from the workshops and meetings held in Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, and Diyarbakır, a comprehensive “Empowerment through Community Music: Trainer Training” was developed collaboratively by the Anadolu Kültür team and the musicians. The training program was designed to address the challenges of continuing to work in these earthquake-affected regions while responding to the diverse needs of different target groups.

For the training, we launched an open call for individual applications from eight cities affected by the earthquake to varying degrees. We received a high number of applications from people across various professional backgrounds—with and without prior music knowledge or experience. Thirty-three participants were selected based on criteria such as full-time availability for the 5-day training and a commitment to applying the training in practice afterward.

Hosted by Çand Amed in Diyarbakır, the training brought together social workers, civil society professionals, music teachers, psychologists, pedagogues, musicians, and arts educators from six different cities.

The training became a collective learning space where participants from diverse fields contributed their expertise, and despite the ongoing challenges caused by the earthquake, collaboratively built a pool of adaptable and practical activities that could be implemented in their own work contexts.

Throughout the five-day training we had three evening events, where the participants engaged in improvised music sessions with local musicians from Diyarbakır. In addition, participants from other cities had the opportunity to visit Diyarbakır’s cultural heritage sites and meet with local NGOs focusing on music and cultural work.

2. HOPE: VOICES TOGETHER – 2025

The UMUT: Empowerment through Community Music project was designed to explore ways of coming together through community-based music with individuals of all ages living under challenging conditions in the provinces heavily affected by the February 6 Earthquakes, including individuals from diverse sociocultural backgrounds, speaking different languages, and possessing different learning styles. The project also aimed to equip local actors with the skills to facilitate sustainable music workshops in their own communities.

The second edition of the project, UMUT: Voices Together – 2025, was carried out in Adıyaman between April and October in partnership with Anadolu Kültür and TonTalente e.V., with the support of the Bingo Foundation.

Following the high interest and strong demand generated by our first edition—UMUT: Melodies Together, implemented across Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, and Diyarbakır in September 2024—we decided to bring forward the 2025 edition and focus specifically on Adıyaman. Our goal was to deepen the project's local impact by spending more time in each city we previously worked in.

With the same team of musicians from Germany and the UK, we carried out a 12-day program in May 2025 in different districts of Adıyaman, consisting of a series of workshops, trainer trainings, and improvisational music sessions.

Specializing in “community-based music pedagogy” and “music-driven community building in post-disaster and conflict contexts”, the musicians—together with the Anadolu Kültür project team and interpreters—implemented workshops across various community centers, container cities, or in the Municipality’s Cultural Hall in Adıyaman. These activities were organized in collaboration with local civil society organizations, municipal units, and youth centers.

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As we have recently finished the 2025 edition, we immediately started the preliminary work for the 2026 edition of the UMUT project, which aims to extend the possibility for creative expression in earthquake-affected provinces, support community-based empowerment through arts and culture, and enhance access to cultural activities and cultural rights in these regions.