The Brussels opera house De Munt has been awarded the International Opera Award for Equal Opportunities and Impact in Warsaw. The opera house’s social programme was praised by judges at the awards ceremony in the Polish capital Warsaw as “building bridges between two worlds”.
The programme aims to make the world of opera accessible to those that for social, economic or medical reasons would otherwise be unable to discover it. The Munt aims to make culture, music and opera open to all. Mirjam Zomersztajn, who has been responsible for the opera’s social programme for the past fourteen years, received the prize at Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki.
Part of De Munt’s social programme is a series of coral singing studio sessions and workshops organised at several Belgian prisons. The opera also tries to raise awareness about the issues poverty and social vulnerability in the world of music, singing and opera. It also strives to make the opera accessible to people from socially disadvantaged groups.
Speaking after receiving the award Ms Zomersztajn said “Every day I see how access to music, song and opera has a positive impact on the lives of people in vulnerable positions. Thanks to the choral singing workshops, the prisoners can not only forget their worries and indulge in the beauty of music. The workshops also help in part to puts them back on the right track. I will never forget how a prisoner responded to a compliment from one of our choir leaders by saying 'I might be locked up but you taught me that my voice is still free'”.