music projects for brussels is an NGO producing new classical  music formats for Brussels, a city where we love to live.

ESCAPADES is a musical reintegration project in which (ex-)prisoners, people in psychological care or in drug-related rehab homes work together on a concert series.

The project was founded by the non-profit organization Music Projects For Brussels +. In collaboration with C.R.I.T. (l'Équipe ASBL), Service Laïque d'Aide aux Justiciable, the linking place Club 55 and the prisons of Haren, Ittre and Oudenaarde, 'escapadists' produce, based on maximum self-reliance and with respect for democratic basic principles, surprising and high-quality classical concerts at La Tricoterie. Third year running !!!

Breaking down barriers, building bridges

ESCAPADES initially arose from the twofold desire to break open the often closed classical music world by organizing concerts bottom-up on the one hand and giving an audience a taste of an art form with which it is unfamiliar on the other.

Classical music can be (and remain!) socially relevant if it is willing to democratize a bit as a 'high cultural asset': “The idea that classical music should be made accessible is a misconception. The music in itself is open to everyone, we humans sometimes make it inaccessible,” says Patrick De Clerck, the driving force behind Music Projects for Brussels, who now receives support from the many private and public institutions in Brussels.

Eight years ago, ESCAPADES ventured into its first edition: a series of 20 concerts in prisons, psychiatric and rehab centers. For the 2.0 edition, an explicit search was made for a possibility to play a supporting role in the return of detainees and psychiatric patients to society: organizing concerts in 'the outside world', autonomously and bottom-up. For many, the ESCAPADES concert series serves as a bridge, a foothold in the fragile time after their release or reintegration.

Often it is possible to find paid internships in eg. Bozar (Belgian Biggest Concert hall amongst others), but also simply having contacts in the outside world and structuring the often formless time that escapadists have after, for example detention, turns out to be very valuable.