“Hey, my C looks like a D!”: in the northern districts of Marseille, an elementary school is transformed into a musical orchestra

The bell rings, an unusual school bell, taken from a Radiohead song. And the tornado of children's screams then takes shape in the playground, grows in strength, rushes past the journalist pinned to the wall, crosses the door of the room like a gust of wind and suddenly harmonizes into a single musical note, held suspended for several seconds between the fingers of the choir director, Marion Schürr. In front of the hundred students of the Busserine elementary school, the professional musician always begins the workshops with this: trying to get the children to listen, finding harmony among themselves, learning to take care of the percussion instruments, the cellos but also the 64 mandolins loaned for the year and which each student takes home in the evening.

Outside, the scenery of the northern districts of Marseille, 14th arrondissement, Cité de la Busserine, where no one dares to honk and crosses the street in front of drug dealing spots . Inside the grounds, a school not quite like the others: for it, the director wanted a strong artistic presence. Not a workshop here and there with interchangeable speakers that we see twice in