“Out & About” is an instrumental song written by the students and director of the Galakticka School Band.  This is not the kind of music these students would typically play.  Rather than emulating their popular Roma musical icons of today, this song sounds more like something from Django Reinhardt, a Roma jazz guitarist who rose to fame in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

The group’s director, Marcel Šenkýr, teaches these young musicians to play in many different styles. “We try to play lots of different types of music, so they can know it.  They can’t be musicians of just one type of music, like Čardaš,” (a popular style of Roma music in Slovakia and Hungary).  “They also have to learn other styles… even classical.”

Why?  Because Šenkýr has seen that these Roma children really express themselves through music.  To learn a different style of music is to learn a different way to express yourself. “They are still growing in music,” he says.  At the moment they listen to a certain style… maybe later they will look for themselves in these other types of music, too.”

Out & About
Music by Martin Ferkov, Rene Frater, Alex Rybar, Marcel Senkyr

Instruments: Martin Ferkov, Alex Rybar, Rene Frater
Music Director: Marcel Šenkýr