Fez — Morocco88 Tour 2026 is preparing to take a project built inside Moroccan public schools onto stages across the country, bringing together youth-created music, international collaboration, and a broader experiment in student leadership.
Running from October 3–9, the tour is planned across Nador, Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech. Young musicians and singers from Morocco88 will perform alongside Germany’s “Cardellino Streichquartett” and pianist Kimball Gallagher, founder and president of 88 International.
The concerts are the public-facing side of a wider youth program that now counts 76 school music clubs, 3,691 students reached, 3,108 active members, and 138 young people trained.
Rather than functioning as conventional music classes, the clubs are designed around three ideas: music, agency, and community. Students write songs, organize activities, take leadership roles, and learn how to keep a club operating inside their school.
88 International explains the broader model through music-based programs focused on youth leadership and community participation.
Morocco88’s presentation describes its clubs as student-led, after-school spaces where music becomes a tool for self-expression, civic participation, and collaboration. Its annual cycle combines songwriting and creativity training with community projects, leadership development, elections, handovers between student leaders, and festival performances.
The program operates in partnership with Morocco’s Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports. A cooperation agreement establishing the “Morocco88” project in secondary schools was concluded in July 2024.
A club does not begin with musicians alone
Gallagher said participation is deliberately broader than students who already know how to sing or play an instrument.
“Any interested student is welcome to join the club,” he told MWN Lifestyle magazine.
“Students with previous music experience are welcome, as are students interested in other elements such as leadership, communication, coordination with adults, operations, video making, lyric writing, and recording,” Gallagher said. “It takes a lot of different skills to keep a music club functioning well.”
That structure means students can enter through music but also through organizing, production, communication, or leadership.
The tour will involve Morocco88 choirs from Nador, Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech, as well as clubs from Lycée Chraibi in Kenitra, Lycée Charif Idrissi in Rabat, Lycée Sahnoune in Marrakech, Lycée Ibn Hazm in Fez, Lycée Ibn Bannae Mourrakouchi in Casablanca, and Lycée Nador.
Additional Moroccan guest participation was still being arranged when Gallagher provided the latest details. He stressed that artists who have only been approached should not be considered announced participants.
Six original songs get a new life
The young musicians will not simply serve as supporting performers for visiting professionals.
Six songs created through Morocco88 clubs have been selected for the tour and are being rearranged for string quartet, choir, and the music club that originally composed each piece.
Casablanca’s Lycée Ibn Bannae Al Mourrakouchi created “Azul In Casa White,” whose original version can be heard on YouTube.
Students from Lycée Nador created “Rfah nagh,” which listeners can discover through its original recording.
Lycée Chraibi’s contribution is “Li Fat” (إلي فات), a song that will have a particular role during the tour. Unlike the other five pieces, which will be performed in their respective regions, “Li Fat” is planned for every tour stop. The original can be heard on YouTube.
Lycée Sahnoune in Marrakech will contribute “You Are the Land.”
From Fez, Lycée Ibn Hazm will bring “Features From Another Time” (من زمن آخر).
Lycée Charif Idrissi’s “Tussna” completes the six-song selection and can be discovered here:
The project’s wider work with young musicians can also be seen in footage of Morocco88 participants presenting original songs.
There is also another recording that captures a Morocco88 orchestra concert.
What the clubs can change beyond music
The emphasis on student leadership is visible in the experience of Nour, a member of the Morocco88 club at Lycée Chraibi.
Her musical path began around seven years ago as a self-taught pianist. She later studied solfège, experimented with violin, and eventually developed a particular passion for guitar.
But she described joining Morocco88 in her second year of high school as a different kind of turning point.
Her club initially consisted of only three students, requiring the group to build its activities with limited numbers. They eventually created “Li Fat,” and the song’s success helped draw more students into the club.
“Morocco88 changed us in ways that go far beyond just making music,” Nour said. “It took us from being quiet and hesitant to stepping up, speaking our minds, and working together as a real team.”
She said the program taught her “how to lead, how to collaborate, and how to trust my own voice.”
Her experience offers one example of the broader idea behind Morocco88: music is the entry point, but the intended outcome also includes confidence, responsibility, teamwork, and the ability to create something collectively.
Morocco-Germany ties move onto the stage
The tour also carries an international dimension as Morocco and Germany mark 70 years of diplomatic relations in 2026.
The German side of the project will be represented most visibly by the “Cardellino Streichquartett” from Essen.
The ensemble is expected to perform German classical repertoire, including music by composers such as Beethoven, while also joining Moroccan students in the newly arranged versions of their original songs.
Gallagher will perform Robert Schumann’s “Carnaval,” a piano cycle composed in 1834–35 and made up of 21 short pieces that move between different characters, scenes, and moods.
Gallagher said the German Federal Foreign Office has been the main supporter of Morocco88 so far, alongside the program’s partnership with Morocco’s education ministry. Program materials also identify the European Investment Bank Institute as a supporter.
The collaboration therefore connects the anniversary to something more practical than an official commemoration. German musicians and Moroccan students will rehearse and perform together, combining classical chamber music with songs developed inside Moroccan schools.
Five stops from Nador to Marrakech
The tour is currently scheduled to open in Nador on October 3, with a 4 p.m. concert at the Nador Cultural Complex.
Fez follows on October 4 at 6 p.m. Morocco88’s current event information places the concert at Yamakane Center.
Rabat is scheduled for October 6 at 7 p.m. at the National Higher Institute of Music and Choreographic Arts.
The tour dossier also places Casablanca on October 7 and Marrakech on October 9. Gallagher said confirmations for the Casablanca and Marrakech stops were still expected when he shared the latest schedule.
The five-city route gives Morocco88 an opportunity to show what its school-club model looks like once students leave their classrooms and enter a professional performance environment.
