toki music school
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NGO TOKI Rapa Nui
“ Living Heritage”EASTER ISLAND SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND THE ARTS
MAHANI TEAVE, Pianist
This is the story of a dream, a dream of a little girl in a faraway land, at the beginning of the world in the middle of the pacific ocean at a small island. The Eastern Island. When this dream started she was nine years old...
Think of the remote Chilean outpost of Easter Island and you are likely to think of the giant stone statues that are dotted around the island and whose origins are shrouded in mystery. You are less likely, perhaps, to think of Bach, Haydn, Chopin and Rachmaninov. But for one native Easter Islander, these long-dead European composers are a daily inspiration.
Mahani Teave started playing classical music as a young girl growing up on the South Pacific island, one of the most isolated places on earth. But within a year her piano teacher had left. The only piano on the island fell into disrepair and Teave's career looked to be heading the same way. But her mother had other plans. She moved the entire family more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) to the Chilean mainland so her daughter could continue to play. Teave completed university and went on to study music in the United States and Germany, where she is now based. Aged 29, she is regarded as one of the region's finest pianists. Teave describes her childhood as idyllic.
"I was in complete contact with nature, swimming in the ocean, climbing trees, running freely. I wish everyone could enjoy that kind of childhood. But on an island with a population of fewer than 5,000 people, it was culturally limited. There was really no chance to develop," she recalls.
"When the piano teacher arrived, her idea was to retire, but then this child turns up and says to her, 'I want to learn piano, please teach me!' So that's how I started. I'd go and practice with her for hours every day. When the teacher left, my mum said it was just too cruel, to allow children to dream but then not be able to fulfil them. That's when we moved to mainland Chile."
She used to find it difficult to reconcile her Polynesian roots with her love of European classical music.
"They were two completely different worlds," she says. "But the more I travelled I came to realise that we're all one people, with the same feelings and the same problems. And it's the same with music. It's about different ways of expressing the same feelings."
Two decades after she first sat down at a piano, Teave is trying to ensure that the next generation of Easter Island children have things easier than she did.She has started a music school on the island and has persuaded people to donate instruments. Piano classes started in April and violin classes in June.
"The idea is to add cello, guitar and ukulele lessons," she says. "One very generous gentleman has kindly offered to donate a grand piano. "The school has teachers but their salaries are only guaranteed until later in the year. Teave is trying to ensure funding does not dry up. "It's been shown that youth orchestras have a real impact on society. If you're in an orchestra you learn to respect the conductor, to listen to your fellow musicians, to work together. And those are important values. "The alcoholism rate on Easter Island is really high, and one wonders why. I think it's because of the amount of talent and energy that ends up wasted and going nowhere."
Teave is currently playing a series of concerts in cities up and down Chile. Her repertoire includes works by Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy and Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, which has a special place in her heart.
THE DREAM OF MAHANI: EASTER ISLAND SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND THE ARTS
Hello!
We are young Easter Islanders trying to preserve the values of our culture, in a time when individualization, materialism and capitalism are consuming our society and killing one of the treasures of the world- our Island. We created a nonprofit organization called TOKI and we formed the first free School of Music and the Arts on the Island to give children the possibility to develop their talents as well as teaching them life values.
We are preparing a crowdfunding project (www.kickstarter.com) to fund the construction of our School. This is the first step of a much larger project, a Center of Knowledge, Culture and People.Can you please help us by making a short video with your cell phone supporting this cause? It will be amazing and help us have a successful campaign!
Your message could be something like:
“Lets help Easter Island´s new generations, Go TOKI RAPANUI!!”
“Lets help this wonderful project! Go TOKI RAPANUI“
“Music and sports teach children values that improve the society!! Let´s help save the Easter Island culture through the organization TOKI RAPANUI!!”Or any other positive message you wish to send to the world and also support TOKI
RAPANUI!!If you could also help us on July 17th by reposting our crowdfunding page would be awesome!! Let us know if this is possible and to what mail or facebook should we send the information to.
I attach further down more information about our nonprofit organization and support letters from UNESCO, YOA, Earthship, Easter Island Institutions and others. We have videos on Youtube channel “ONG Toki Rapa Nui” or “Profesor Rapa Nui”. Also facebook page called “Toki Rapa Nui”
Thank you so much!!! Mauruuru!!Mahani Teave
NGO TOKI Rapa Nui “ Living Heritage”
“Toki” is the tool with which our ancestors sculpted everything, from the moai to the petroglyphs, from houses to our ancestral writings. We want to be a tool to preserve and perpetuate the living heritage of Easter Island.
Our missionWe seek to protect and safeguard the Easter Island culture. For this reason we have begun developing the first School of Music and the Arts after which we will move towards a more comprehensive project which contains our four work areas. These are the areas:
• Music and the Arts• Cultural Patrimony• Social and Economic Development• Environment
School of Music and ArtsChildren are our future, hope, and promise for a better place. It’s fundamental to cultivate in them values that will help them develop into complete human beings, conscious and proud of their roots. Our first project is the Easter Island School of Music and Arts where we offer FREE classes in cello, piano, violin, ukelele and viola to almost 70 children. Our school receives 5% of all the young islanders.
Become a part of our project so we can help many more!
Why a School of Music and the Arts on Easter Island?
Giving opportunities: Easter Island is marvelous and surprising, but being the most isolated inhabited place in the world, it lacks services. There is no place that is free and open to the community where young island residents can learn and develop musical and artistic abilities. Lacking opportunities and projection, void of social commitment and frustrated, the young are transformed into a vulnerable group. The School of Music and the Arts welcomes children and promotes values such as solidarity and personal development without a competitive base.
Intangible tools: Musical formation teaches values to children such as perseverance, discipline, respect and teamwork. It helps them interact better with their surroundings and become visionaries. They are removed andancestral knowledge to remain alive. You are a tool just as the “Toki” was for our ancestors. They are removed and protected from risk situations such as alcoholism and drug addiction!
Improving the community: Music is a universal language that unites people. Its message reaches the whole community, touching their hearts. The student concerts unite the family and inspire profound respect and pride in the audience.
Expressing feelings: Music permits the young to keep their souls pure because it is a means of channeling feelings, of expressing joy and sorrow. It protects the noble essence of each human being by releasing the pain which is acquired throughout our lives.
Taking care of our home: Protecting both the island and the whole planet is our responsibility and conservation of the environment one of our key objectives. TOKI wants to sensitize and develop consciousness, study resources on Easter Island, and strive for self-sustainability. Our first project is the construction of the Easter Island Development Center using the principles of Biotecture Earthships. This will be the first construction of its type in Chile and the second in South America!
Your donation will help us preserve the Easter Island culture, give opportunities to children, work towards rescuing the patrimony of our elders, protect the environment with constructive new proposals, and permit the ancestral knowledge to remain alive. You are a tool just as the “Toki” was for our ancestors.
CONTACT US
You can contact us at [email protected]
SOUTH AMERICAMahani TeaveConcert Pianist, Cultural Ambassador, Director Easter Island School of Music and the Arts [email protected]
EUROPECecilia Fuentes IbarburuManager, South Embassy, [email protected]: +49 30 443 12 459Mobile: +49 152 047 22 467