Last month, Gaby and Ben joined our fellow Refuge Worldwide residents, Nicky and Nick on their Face the Music show, where they showcase, amplify and celebrate intersectional stories from voices across the music industry.
We spoke about how the OML came about in 2015, in the midst of Europe’s refugee crisis. Born from various community initiatives in Berlin, we spoke about how our community here has been such a lifeline in the face of funding challenges.
For us, at the heart of the OML, is a desire to create a space where can anyone can learn, build and share their musical knowledge. It’s what we want our music scene and our Berlin to look like - equitable, open and community centred.
In the show, we spoke about how two of our students, Morena and Abed, who also embody this. Morena aka Morphena is from Buenos Aires, Argentina and she joined the OML music production course in 2019. She has since done Dj sets at HÖR and Refuge Worldwide. Since the course she has continued to release music as well as DJing regularly. Abed Alfakir is from Damascus, Syria, and he moved to Berlin in 2015, after finishing high school. In 2019, he joined to OML music production course to continue developing his production skills.