The sound of Hope: Music school opens doors for Roma youth

This article is part of the Breaking out: Stories of Roma empowerment special report, presented by the Roma Foundation for Europe.
SLIVEN, Bulgaria — The train tracks that carve through the Bulgarian city of Sliven mark more than just the town’s geography; they define a stark divide in its population.
On one side is the Nadezhda quarter — or “Hope” in English —  home to roughly 20,000 Roma residents. Along with the population of nearby towns and villages, the Sliven district has the highest concentration of Roma in the country, according to 2021 census data. People in the neighborhood face a reality shaped by poverty, limited access to health care and education, and persistent discrimination. As a result, generations here have been held back by early marriages and high dropout rates from school, with many of them leaving the country to seek seasonal jobs.
Yet some have found hope on the other side of the tracks, in a music school just a few blocks away.
The school called Music, Not the Street offers classical music education to Roma children. It was set up by musician Georgi Kalaidzhiev in 2008 and provides lessons in a wide variety of instruments, from violin and cello to trumpet, clarinet and piano. 
Kalaidzhiev’s initiative has already trained more than 300 children, with around 90 currently enrolled. While some students commute from nearby villages, most live just across the train tracks in Nadezhda, seeing in the school’s offerings an alternative to life in a ghetto.
But for some in Sliven, music has offered a path to a different future: Though not every student at the Music, Not the Street school goes on to pursue a professional career, many continue their education in music schools or even at the National Music Academy in Sofia.
“If I weren’t playing the violin, I would have aimlessly wandered the streets,” says Tsvetelina Hristova, a 21-year-old violinist who now plays part-time with the Sliven Symphony Orchestra. 
After graduating from high school, Hristova came back to work as a trainer at the music school. Her goal is to inspire more Roma girls to “continue their education without any fear, so that they do not need to think about marriage so early.” 
In the Roma community, child marriage is an old tradition. While the number of marriages under the age of 16 is slowly decreasing, early matrimony continues to limit the prospects of young women. Only 12 percent of girls and 18 percent of boys are likely to complete secondary education if they marry before the age of 18, according to a 2020 survey on education and employment among Roma in Bulgaria.
With the music school, Hristova said, “they can dream big.” 
Since it was founded more than 15 years ago, Music, Not the Street has grown from humble beginnings in Georgi Kalaidzhiev’s sister’s basement to taking up an entire building.
Kalaidzhiev, 77, was born and raised in the same Roma quarter. As an accomplished violinist, he played in concert halls across the world until he settled down in Germany in 1993 to become a concertmaster in the town of Giessen.
But he never forgot where he came from: Since he started the music school, he has traveled back to Nadezhda to visit and tutor the students every few months.
The project’s toughest test is to help break down stereotypes about the Roma community, sometimes coming from Roma families themselves.
“I was one of those children who grew up in Nadezhda,” he said. “But playing the violin took me all around the country and abroad.” 
He added that his talent with the violin eventually landed him a job in the music industry in Germany. “I wanted to pay it forward and introduce classical music to other children in the neighborhood, so it can allow them similar opportunities to the ones I was afforded,” he said.
Coming from a family of musicians, 13-year-old Zlatko Angelov is determined to follow in Kalaidzhiev’s footsteps and make a name for himself in the world of classical music. “I always dreamed of becoming a violin player,” he says. 
He has already played in some of the biggest concert halls in Bulgaria, joined the Sliven Symphony Orchestra in several performances, and along with other music school students taken part in several concerts in Geneva and Strasbourg in September. “Of all instruments, the violin is the dearest to my heart — from its shape and sound to the beauty of the music it creates,” he said.
Zlatko’s teacher Radka Kuseva refers to him as “our big hope,” describing him as a promising young musician with a bright music career ahead of him. 
Coming from a family of musicians, 13-year-old Zlatko Angelov is determined to follow in Kalaidzhiev’s footsteps and make a name for himself in the world of classical music.
Kuseva has been coaching Zlatko since he was six. And the goal is to train him — and others like him — on more than classical music: The school wants to “teach them about the discipline of learning, to give them confidence, to offer them a chance to leave the neighborhood,” Kuseva said. 
“We would like to show them that they are capable, that they can do whatever they want, if they put their minds to it.”
Despite its ambitions and individual success stories, Kalaidzhiev’s school still faces challenges. 
The project’s toughest test is to help break down stereotypes about the Roma community, sometimes coming from Roma families themselves.
“Some of the participants do not attend classes regularly as they have problems at home or their parents are not so supportive of their music training,” Kuseva explained.
Roma families can be quite conservative about allowing their children to study elsewhere — especially girls: For instance, in the beginning, people frowned upon the fact that Hristova, the violinist with the Sliven Symphony Orchestra, went to study in a music high school in Burgas, a Black Sea port. 
But the more success stories Roma people encounter, the more inclined they are to let their kids study, according to students like Hristova.
“The school … shows us that there really is hope for Hope,” Hristova said.
This article is part of the Breaking out: Stories of Roma empowerment special report, presented by the Roma Foundation for Europe. The article is produced with full editorial independence by POLITICO reporters and editors. Learn more about editorial content presented by outside advertisers.