Association Zomraé Océan Indien, 11 Lotissement Moreau, Rivière des Roches, 97470 Saint-Benoît, France

Program

Free tuition is offered in performance (keyboards, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, tuba, accordion, valiha, drums, percussion, traditional instruments), solfège, theory, music technology, dance. There is a student orchestra and choir. Available to young children as well as interested adults.

The Zojare Indian Ocean Project organises the only school combining music and dance in Madagascar. The Zomaré Association was created in 1998 in the northern city of Antsiranana (Diégo-Suarez) and is a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Saint-Benoît, France. Its founding members were Madagascan and French musicians, dancers and teachers, and they founded the project known as The House of Music (La Maison de Musique) in Réunion, later establishing the same project known as the House of Music in Antsiranana in Madagascar. It operates only on Saturdays. The project is supported by the Conservatoire National du Région of La Réunion with which there are exchange programs. The Zomaré Association organisation has three goals: • Collection, research and dissemination of traditional music materials from north Madagascar; organisation of concerts and seminars relating to traditional musics. • Student and teacher exchanges with La Réunion, France and neighbouring countries in the Indian ocean; • Training of teachers to teach music and dance in Antsiranana, with some emphasis on traditional styles. It has become a place of cultural exchange between various Indian Ocean islands, especially between Réunion and Madagascar, but also with potential to include Mauritius, the Comoros Islands and the Seychelles. All tuition is free for children aged 7 to 18 years and instruments are provided. There is collaboration with local schools, and a new building is being constructed. Languages of instruction are Malagash and French.

March 2022