The month of November is dedicated to music. Activities are, as well as in the previous month, divided into two parts. The first part of the activities was on the topic of jazz music.

Workshop Jazz was held on November 8, 2015 in the premises of MMCA in Križanićeva Street 6A, and the workshop leader was Danijela – Lela Kaplowitz.

This workshop was realized in cooperation with two projects, one of which is “Jazz on Wheels”. It is a modern educational program that entails traveling workshops and promotes jazz music primarily, but not exclusively, to scholars and students around Croatia. The aim of the program is to expand the existing program of musical culture, a part of which is jazz music. A special feature of these workshops is that a professional manager and musicians come to school / institution and through a brief history of jazz music and a demonstration of the instruments, individually or together, in front of the students, who did not have the opportunity to experience a live concert of this kind of music. Finally, young people are motivated to play instruments and play music together with the help of leaders and musicians. So far they had more than 25 workshops across Croatia.

Another project with which we cooperated on this occasion is the Festival Women in Jazz organized by the Association Prostor Plus.

Lela Kaplowitz is a highly acclaimed Croatian singer with world music experience. She has performed on many prestigious jazz festivals and with top musicians around the world (Chico O’Farrill, Charles Tolliver, Craig Handy etc.).

She acquired her education under several jazz mentors – Sheila Jordan in Graz, Jay Clayton and Mark Murphy in New York. She attended the Berklee Summer Music Workshop in Perugia (Italy) and The Vocal Performance Workshop at the New School in New York. She is still educateig herself through Berklee online programs.

She won a variety of vocal international awards (Lady Summertime, Finland in 2009 and so on) and award Kvarner County for Promotion of Cultural Creation (2010). She is a proud bearer of the status of an independent artist at the Croatian Institute for Independent Artists.

She has four solo albums and was a guest at many Croatian and foreign editions.

Organizes and leads workshops on jazz music for children and youth across Croatia. Teaches singing technique, interpretation and improvisation and enjoys her calling.

The workshop lasted one day. It began with introductory games to which Lela added a musical touch. After that, the children looked at two videos that introduced them to the history of jazz music, dance and jazz instruments. After that, the children remembered which jazz songs they know, whether they like music concerts, which instruments they know, whether they like jazz and how it differs from the other music. Lela has brought various instruments with her – maracas, castanets, a tambourine, djembe and other with which the children have learned the rhythm of jazz music. Lela so brought Step shoes – a type of dance that is closely connected to jazz music. A large part of the workshop was dedicated to improvisation as one of the key elements of jazz music. The children tried to improvise with their voices and bodies, individually and in pairs. Then, in order for them to get familiar with a microphone, we organized a small karaoke. After that Lela, through play, further explore the power of music with children.