About us
“Béla Nepali” literally means “Nepalese violin”. Béla Nepali is an organisation of volunteers who want to contribute to the development of musical life in Nepal. We want to offer disadvantaged children and adolescents the opportunity to develop their musical talent, taking Western classical music as a basis.
Background
Nepal is ranked low on the welfare list of the Organization of Economical Co-Operation and Development in the category of least developed countries. Therefore, the government is unable to organize any form of musical education for youngsters. Nonetheless, there is a clear demand from within Nepalese youth for musical education: earlier projects in which members of Béla Nepali were involved, including a music camp and the foundation of the very first Nepalese youth orchestra, showed an overwhelming interest and enthusiasm. Béla Nepali wants to be part of the further development and support of this spirit.
Béla Nepali co-operates selectively with a number of local educational bodies and other, local organizations in order to reach her goals. This includes co-operation with Sinichi Minami and his Gunma Youth Orchestra. They are active in a large number of Asian countries in development (Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam…) to establish and support local musical education for youngsters.
The people behind Béla Nepali
Béla Nepali was founded by five individuals who have a close connection with Nepal after earlier musical experiences and journeys. Dries Brouwers is a violin student himself at the Conservatory in Antwerp, with Vegard Nilsen as his teacher. Naim Mansour is an electrical engineer, currently working at Alcatel-Lucent, but also very active in the concert life with his violin and the membership of various orchestras and ensembles. Alex Van Beveren has been oboe player at the Flemish Radio Orchestra until his retirement, but is now still active in the (international) concert life. Lenny De Pooter is psychologist, but has been playing violin since her childhood and is an active member of Jeugd en Muziek Antwerpen (Youth and Music) and its orchestra. Stephen Emsen is an engineer, but also a piano fanatic. Together these five people form the core team of Béla Nepali, of course aided by the people close to them!
Data
Béla Nepali is a “feitelijke vereniging” (“association des faits”).
Headquarters and correspondence: Jozef Balstraat 4, 2600 Berchem, Belgium
IBAN: BE25 7310 0938 0982 ; BIC: KREDBEBB
Contact: info@belanepali.be ; +32 494 075087