Children’s and Youth Orchestras Workshop ends with brilliant symphony concert

(La Paz, December 10, 2010).- A concert held at the facilities of CAF - Latin American development bank – ended the first Children's and Youth Orchestra Workshop which the financial institution organized as part of its Social Action for Music program. Seventy children and young musicians from Tarija, Oruro, Santa Cruz, La Paz and El Alto departments who participated in the workshop in the last ten days brilliantly performed four classics on string instruments, under the direction of teachers from the Venezuelan State Foundation for Systems of Children’s and Youth Orchestras (FESNOJIV).

"This is only a sampling of the great work done in the workshop and in a decade of the CAF Social Action for Music program in our member countries. Our goal is to promote and build young talent through musical education of excellence and, through it, achieve integrated development of the human being; we are confident that foundations of economic development lie in human capital," CAF director-representative in Bolivia Emilio Uquillas said.

Beatríz García, director of the Social Capital Unit of BancoSol - microfinance institution which supported the holding of the workshop as part of its ClaveSol youth orchestra program – said these children and young people were an example for the country, since through music they excel in their cities and have responded very positively to the challenge of the rigorous training they have received.

Finally`- on behalf of the FESNOJIV teachers - Jesus Sira, César Suárez, Jerome Isturiz - professor Roberto Zambrano congratulated Bolivian youth and emphasized their good interpretive level. "They are talented, disciplined musicians with an artistic vocation worthy of being stimulated," he said.

The orchestra of violins, violas and cellos delighted the public with the works: Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Mozart’s A Little Night Music for strings, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings Opuses 20 and 48.

The workshop consisted of a preliminary technical and musical assessment of the students followed by individual and group classes by instrument, along with position of the body, articulation and emission of sound, among other subjects. The objective was to teach students to interpret musical works in conditions of high quality and obtain international technical expertise.

Since its start in 2000 the CAF Social Action for Music in Latin America has organized classes for 40,000 children and young people from vulnerable sectors, trained 380 teachers who are now multiplying the model in their communities, and held 130 instrumental, choral and lutherie workshops in 36 Latin American locations. Today 45 institutions are replicating the model in different countries of the region.

ClaveSol is an initiative of the BancoSol Social Capital Unit. The project, which trains players of the violin, viola, cello and double bass, is targeted at children and young people from low-income districts of El Alto and La Paz, who wish to occupy their free time and transmit positive values which contribute to the development of peoples. Currently over 300 students are taking part in the CLAVESOL children’s-youth orchestra.