Children and young people from Bolivia give brilliant symphony concert

(Santa Cruz, February 18, 2011).- After 10 days of rigorous training and musical education, 150 young musicians from the cities of El Alto, La Paz, Tarija and Yacuiba, as well as various localities in Santa Cruz department, gave a masterful symphony concert to close the second Children and Youth Orchestra Workshop organized by CAF - Latin American development bank.

The event, known by the musicians as “Memorable Concert ," was held in the La Mansión Catholic Charismatic Center of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and is part of the Social Action Program for Music which the financial institution has been promoting for 10 years.

"This is only a sample of the great work being done in the workshop, during a decade of the CAF Social Action for Music in our partner countries," CAF director representative in Bolivia Emilio Uquillas said at the end of the musical event.

The CAF representative explained that the program aimed to build young talent through a musical education of excellence, which "contributes to the integrated development of human capital."

The young musicians played three classical and two popular works with great skill, under the direction of maestro Antoine Duhamel, professor at the Foundation for the State System of Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela (FESNOJIV).

"Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss and essential fragments of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony were also performed. The orchestra also played brilliantly the works "Alma Cruceña" by César Espada, and "Suite Romanza de la Selva" by Nicolas Menard.

The workshop consisted of a preliminary technical and musical assessment of the students in preparation for individual and group classes by instrument, as well as classes on body position, articulation and sound issue, among others.

The Santa Cruz musicians selected to take part in the CAF program are part of the program of the System of Choirs and Orchestras, or are groups from parishes, barrios and institutions such as Hombres Nuevos Orchestra, Niño Feliz, Hamacas, 25 de Diciembre, and San Antonio.

The selection process for the musicians was held in several cities and in the Santa Cruz localities of Buena Vista, San Ignacio de Velasco, Santa Ana de Velasco, Santiago de Chiquitos, San Jose de Chiquitos, and San Rafael de Velasco.

Since its inception in 2000, the CAF Social Action Program for Music has trained 40,000 children and young people from vulnerable sectors, along with 380 teachers who are now multiplying the model in their communities.

Additionally, 130 instrumental, choral and lutherie workshops have been held in 36 Latin American locations. Currently, 45 institutions are replicating the model promoted by CAF in various countries of the region.

ClaveSol is an initiative of the BancoSol Social Capital Unit. The project teaches the violin, viola, cello and bass and is targeted at children and young people in popular barrios of El Alto and La Paz, with the aim of occupying their free time and transmitting positive values that contribute to the development of peoples. Over 300 students are now members of the CLAVESOL children-juvenile orchestra.

The Choirs and Orchestras System (Sicor) is a non-profit civil institution which teaches music to children and young people from villages and barrios belonging to the orchestras and choirs in the system. Set up in 1998, Sicor addresses the need for a unifying, protecting and governing body for the schools which began to be felt in La Gran Chiquitania following the prestige achieved by the Urubichá Choir and Orchestra.