Directors of children's choruses and orchestras from the region take part in training workshops

(Caracas, February 15, 2007).- As part of the CAF Social Action for Music Program, the Corporation will bring over 100 musicians and chorus directors to Caracas on February 22 to 25 to participate in the First International Workshop on Training of Directors of Children's Choruses and Orchestras. The event consists of two activities: the International Workshop on Training of Directors of Children's Choruses, whose objective is to support new directors in the Andean Choral Voices Program (VAC). The second activity is the International Workshop on Analysis and Development, which has to do with studying and strengthening of the conditions necessary for the creation of children’s orchestras in the region which reinforce the Andean Traveling Conservatory (CAI).

The participants from various Andean countries will become "messengers" of the CAF Social Action for Music Program. After the training, they will be able to expand children's choral and instrumental activity to countries where the project will be introduced: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, and in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina where it began last year.

Using symphonic music as a tool for enhancing values and social rescue, the program focuses on the integrated education of children and young people from low-income sectors. The ambitious project came into being in 2000, following the results of the creation of a youth orchestra in the Andean countries for the celebration of CAF’s 30th anniversary. The same year saw the start of the Andean Traveling Conservatory which teaches young people in the region to play instruments through traveling workshops. Three years later in 2003, the Andean Choral Voices workshops started with the objective of strengthening the teaching of singing and choral direction for children and young people. Since then, CAF has held over 20 concerts around the region and trained over 30,000 children and young people.

Ana Mercedes Botero, head of the CAF Office of External Relations, said: "We are witnesses of the success of musical education as an integrated training vehicle which awakens the mind and spirit. Our task is to be part of a process that creates the conditions for education, organization, and social and regional integration. We can proudly say that CAF is contributing to the development of our partner countries by making their children and young people sing and play."

Recognized music and singing teachers will come to Venezuela to give six days of theoretical and practical workshops, along with specialists in child and juvenile teaching. The prestigious guests include María Guinand, vice president of the International Chorus Federation; José Antonio Abreu, president of FESNOJIV; and Finlander Sanna Valvane from the North American Choral Company.

The workshops are also backed by the International Chorus Federation, UNESCO International Music Council, Caracas Schola Cantorum Foundation, Caracas Coral Cantemos Movement, and the Venezuelan State Foundation for the National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras (FESNOJIV).