First Brazilian Nacional Lyre and Kânteles Conference

by Karla Polanczyk and Flavia Betti Souza

The first Brazilian conference for lyres and kânteles took place at Cântaro in early September 2016. It was organized by "Círculo Musical Association,” together with Cântaro, in Belo Horizonte. Círculo Musical is an association that brings together musicians, music teachers, and professionals who in some way have their work outlined in music. We had 38 lyre and kantele players, and seven music teachers who offered some musical activity or presented their work. We had people from at least seven different Brazilian cities, from the very southern part to northeastern Brazil.

We had a wonderful opening lyre concert. A group of thirteen 8- to 13-year-old children opened the concert, and they were followed by the Cantaro Lyre Group, with 25 lyres and kanteles.

Among the themes, we explored:

* Therapeutic lyre approach in a Palliative Treatment Center
* How to introduce the kantele to small children
* Pentatonic compositions from observing movement in children (from 0 to 7 years old)
* The fifth environment: Pentatonic music education in Waldorf schools
* Kantele tuning: Exploring other scales and tuning systems.

We had, of course, a very special time dedicated to playing together each day – the lyre and kantele orchestra – in the morning and late afternoon.

It was a very special opportunity for those who work alone in their school, in their city, to know and meet diferent lyre players, and also share their work and experiences. Brazil is a very big country, and we don´t have many opportunities of meeting our friends, other lyre players, and teachers.