/ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Big Orchestra, Little Musicians

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 30 2003 (IPS) - The children squirm and laugh until the instructor counts to three. Then they turn their attention to the musical score in front of them and, with their cellos held just so, they begin to play a few bars of music, repeating it over and over again – just like professional musicians do.

But these musicians, absorbed in their effort, are eight to 16 years old and attend school in the Lugano neighbourhood, in southern Buenos Aires, a poor district that the city government has decided merits “priority action”.

Lugano is the focus of a symphony orchestra project aimed at keeping children in school and building self-esteem.

“One of the most dramatic changes in the children is their ability to concentrate,” Claudio Espector, director of the Lugano Orchestra, told IPS. “Shortly after beginning, they extend their attention span, achieve greater synchronicity and improve their response to the demands of the instructor,” he said.

The children’s teachers are pleasantly surprised when they attend a practice or recital and see their students perform as musicians. “They can’t believe that the boy who drives them mad in the classroom is the same one who is seriously playing the violin,” says Espector, laughing.

The orchestra was founded in 1998, and the programme has operated in Lugano since then, with some 150 children and adolescents attending the classes and practice sessions.

For the past year, the experience has been replicated with 50 children in a “critical zone” known as Villa 31, a central Buenos Aires neighbourhood.

“The teaching method we use is not the traditional approach to music,” said Espector, who is also pianist and director of the National Manuel de Falla Conservatory. “Here the children are taught to read music and play an instrument that they like, but always with the objective of playing in the orchestra.”

The children choose an instrument and receive one on loan in order to practise at home. And they attend class three times a week, including an all-day session on Saturdays.

Most of the time there are practice sessions for each separate instrument. Then at the end, the students all come together and they practice under the director’s baton.

Iván Schmutz, the youngest in the horn section, fidgets with his trumpet while he waits for directions from the instructor. His size would suggest he is an eight-year-old, but he says he is 10. Several toes stick out through a hole in his tennis shoe.

He loves to come to the horn class, but says that what he likes best is the all-instrument practice sessions.

Valery Cornejo, 12, plays the trombone, next to two English horn players. “My instrument is difficult because I have to use my mouth to make the sound but also concentrate on moving the slide,” she told IPS during a break in the practice session.

Nearby, in another room, a dozen girls and boys practice scales on their shining flutes. Every two must share a music stand, and they shift their gaze between the music and the instructor’s hand, which marks the tempo. Occasionally, their voices low, they consult one another on a note that didn’t sound like it should.

Upstairs, in another room, the clarinet teacher is dealing with a note that is out of tune, having the children play the musical phrase over and over until he can find the source of the discordant sound.

The violin instructor grows frustrated with her diminutive musicians, who apparently do no practice enough. One of them complains, “But it’s time for the snack break!”

“I’ve been playing the violin for five years and I really like it,” María Angeles Castro, 16, says timidly, while her classmates run to the cafeteria. “It clears my head. I feel like I’m in another world,” she told IPS once the others were gone.

Some of the musical instruments are supplied by the government, while others have been donated by charities. This year the orchestra received a grant of 17,000 dollars to purchase needed items. “We have decided on an oboe, a bassoon, another contrabass and perhaps some percussion instruments,” says Espector.

Haydé Cafarena, Buenos Aires director of education, told IPS that the orchestra was created as part of a programme aimed at preventing children from dropping out of school and reducing the number of students repeating grades.

These “informal” education projects help build the students’ self-esteem and get their families involved with the school, she said.

Outside of the regular class schedule but at the school, students taking part in the programmes can attend science, theatre and chess workshops, as well as family days for games and sports. “The orchestra is part of this effort to utilise the school as a means of retention and ongoing education,” said Cafarena.

Studying a musical instrument and playing in an orchestra is usually associated with children of the middle class or wealthier strata, not just as a matter of tastes but because of the economic investment needed to buy the instruments. Furthermore, it can take years of private lessons to learn to play an instrument well.

“But that is a myth that is broken when the parents see their child play the violin for the first time,” said Cafarena.

Espector agrees. When a children’s orchestra begins to perform in public venues associated with the cultural elite, such as the famed Teatro Colón, “the parents’ eyes open to a new possibility, a project, something they never imagined for their children,” he said.

Through a cooperative association, the parents help with the logistics of the orchestra. They arrange for transportation when the young musicians are to give a concert, they help care for the instruments, and make contributions for the Saturday snack break.

The Lugano orchestra has performed nearly one hundred concerts and has even travelled to other cities in Argentina.

Since the project began five years ago, some students have proven to be excellent musicians. Two performed with the youth orchestra that gave a concert for the presidents gathered at the Ibero-American Summit in Panama. They are the ones who have decided to pursue a musical career.

The experience and knowledge that the two have accumulated is enough to allow them to teach the youngest students, helping the 20 music instructors who take part in the project.

“This is just one way that the project feeds itself,” noted Espector.