The diversity and wide variety of nationalities and cultures at UL is something we take great pride in. Student ambassador Nuria showcases how music in UL allowed for her to mix with people from all over the world, understand new cultures and form friendships and connections for life!

UL is well known for the huge variety of nationalities and diverse cultures that share the campus and knowledge every day, alongside the wide range of activities that encourage this interaction between them. I want to especially highlight the way it is done through music, in particular the ICO Academy Project that took place in St. Patrick’s week.

The Irish world academy has a special course in world music, as well as electives and workshops such as Gamelan, African drums or Middle Eastern Ensemble which are also integrated in other courses, but this project hosted by the MA in Classical String Performance in cooperation with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, was very special for me. It was a five day intensive orchestra project performed by the MA students. It had an holistic approach, meaning that we began the day by warming up the body with some dance related exercises, shortly after we played some of the music for the concert, followed by movement practice without the instruments in order to embody the music and enhance the energy that it should express while playing, and at the end of the day we became more creative introducing improvisation.

However, the most exciting aspect of all this week was to get to know so many people from all over the world (Italy, South Africa, Poland, Brazil…).We enjoyed all our accents and language mixes, making fun of our exhausted brain lapsus after rehearsing and trying to talk in all the possible languages we were able to speak. Another noticeable aspect I would like to mention is getting ready. Apart from the clichés of time flexibility, who dresses most elegantly or the group sense, we could appreciate that in the end, even though there’s a slight truth in that, every individual is unique. So basically, there was an amazing spontaneous organization to help each other, move together in order not to get lost, pulling the slowest and slowing down the fastest, it was like a big family sharing responsibilities and building an amazing team that made the best of all of them and allowed the week to be smooth and perfect in any aspect, We were so loud you could’ve heard us from the other end of campus!

To sum up, this meeting allowed us to exchange cultural ideas and get to know Irish culture all together, for instance living our first St. Patrick’s day, learning about others customs, or just enjoying the musical process.

This is just one of the multiple exclusive opportunities UL offers to students, that are for life and enriches us not only academically, but allowed us to make connections with new people from all over the globe.

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