“These are the instruments that saved us.”
Inspiring article on the growth and mission of El Sistema USA and the Abreu Fellows.
By Jeremy Eichler
photo: Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. (Rainer Maillard/Deutsche Grammophon, via Bloomberg News)
I have never seen Symphony Hall erupt the way it did that night in 2007, with Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra onstage. It was not the precision and polish of the group’s Bartok or Beethoven that set off the crowd, but the sheer expressive potency and exuberant physicality of the performance. My guess is that the music meant more to those in the audience that night because, at its core, it meant more to these players, some of whom had risen up beyond violent streets and poverty. Taking their final bows, musicians lofted their violins, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, and flutes high above their heads, as if to simply say, “Here they are: the instruments that saved us.’’ Article continues here “Catching the upbeat to a new movement”
Filed Under: News & Events
