The Maya Youssef Trio came to visit us at Sandwick last week, here are some of Primary 6/7’s thoughts….

Alec thought that she was really good and very interesting.  Lewis thought it was quite overwhelming and quite interesting.  Shane thought she answered all the questions really quite well and formal.

By alec,lewis and shane.

 

Today we saw a musician called Maya Youssef. She was here for The Folk Festival, and she was brought up in Syria. She started to go to a Music Institute when she was only 7 and a half years old. Her parents signed her up for Violin by force. One day she was in a taxi on her way to the Institute when she heard some music on the radio. She instantly said I want to play this instrument. The taxi driver laughed and said it’s a canoen and said it is a male instrument and said you’ll never be able to play this instrument. As soon as she got to the Institute she signed up for it and rubbed her name off Violin.

She was amazing.

By Gracie, Connor, Shaun and Kaden.

 

28.04.17

This morning the Maya Youssef trio came to visit us. They played us some songs and answered our questions.

Now it’s very exciting to see any band perform but this was extra special, Maya plays something called the Kanun. It’s originally from Syria where Maya is from but not a lot of people play it. It’s is a 72 string instrument and it works like a piano but instead of the hammers working the strings your fingers are working the strings!

We thank Maya and her band for coming and playing for us!

Thank you!  By Jennifer and Kyle, P6/7

 

She is a Syrian and she plays a kanun. Which is a harp plus piano thing shaped as a canoe, only MEN are allowed to play it. Although Maya was determined! She has been playing since she was 9 years old! She has also played in London and Shetland! Maya plays Syrian music (which is so cool!) she is a really good musician.

By Steven, Erin and Esther

 

We asked Maya some questions, these have been noted below by Ella and Freya.

This morning Maya Youssef, She was born in Syria and came to live in the UK. She came to our school to show us her kanun which is an instrument which has 78 strings. She came to our school with 2 others who played the cello and other precution instruments.

At the end of their performance we were all aloud to ask questions, we asked things like,

.What inspired you to start playing?

“There is too much hatred in the world and I want to make some more love and beauty by playing music”.

.Why did you chose to play the kanun?

“I was in a taxi and I heard the kanun being played on the radio so I started playing”.

.When did you start playing?

“I started playing the kanun when I was only nine years old, but before that I played violin”.

 

We loved our visit from Maya and her band mates!