The world sends us garbage... We send back music.
What began as a simple statement from a music teacher has become a global catchphrase used to describe a group of youth from Cateura, Paraguay, a slum built on top of that countrys largest landfill. There, men, women and children look for anything of value to sell from the 1,500 tonnes of waste and garbage dumped on the site each day. Its also where one man found a broken violin and decided to repair it.
That man was Nicolás Gómez known as Cola, a luthier and garbage picker. He teamed up with Favio Chavez, a musician with a background in environmental technology. In 2006, Chávez launched a recycling program at Cateura and after observing the kids frequenting the dump he opened a music school, which evolved into what today is called the Recycled Orchestra project. He was also the author of that now famous phrase.
Using pop caps and coins for buttons, oil cans for bodies, bent forks, recycled wood and basically anything he could get his hands on, Gomez created instruments for the orchestra. The orchestra caught the attention of a film crew working on a documentary about the youth of Paraguay and a YouTube video was made as a teaser for a feature-length film called Landfill Harmonic. The video went viral and in turn was seen by numerous Vancouverites, including environmental activist Janos Maté and Nick Urquhart, a music teacher at Killarney secondary school and president of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. During a dinner party a few weeks ago, the two men discussed the video and brainstormed ideas about what could be done locally. In that early discussion, the newly formed charity Instruments of Change was formed. Its short-term goal: to collect instruments for the orchestra. Its long-term hope: to bring the youth of Cateura to Vancouver to perform.
The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura teaches us so much about how much we take for granted in our society, how much waste we produce and how we need to reduce our waste stream and reuse and recycle, says Maté.
He adds its amazing when you consider these children live in conditions where a violin is worth more than the shack they call home.
But most moving for me is the young girl in the video who says without music I would have nothing, Maté says.
The men recruited friends and family and quickly gained the support of members of the Vancouver School Board, NDP MP for Vancouver Kingsway and violinist Don Davies, Linda Lee Thomas, principal pianist for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Paul Alexander a music teacher and composer at Dickens elementary school, and Jerry Prussin, owner of Prussin Music on West Broadway.
To date the group has offers of donations for more than 80 instruments, some as far away as Seattle. Maté says Prussin Music has generously donated several dozen instruments and has agreed to act as a depot for donated instruments, which are also being collected at Killarney secondary.
Maté says hundreds of instruments are likely gathering dust in Vancouver and available to make music in the hands of young musicians. Prussin Music has several discounted instruments for sale, which can be purchased at the store and sent to Paraguay. Donations can be made towards the purchase of those instruments, including everything from violins to trombones. Donors can have their names and personal messages forwarded to the Recycled Orchestra so the young musicians will know theyve inspired the world.
Depending on the support the group receives, the volunteers hope to bring the Recycled Orchestra to Vancouver. Its already performed in Europe. Maté says such a visit would be an invaluable learning experience for the orchestra members and for the youth of Vancouver.
In a letter to Maté, the director of Orquesta de Reciclados Cateura, Favio Chavez, writes some of these children come to the orchestra on their own initiative. He has no idea who their parents are.
Chavez notes how wonderful it would be if all the children had access to real instruments. But he adds the recycled instruments would remain an important part of the program.
This process has proven successful and to respect the social status of the children living in extreme poverty for whom, receiving a musical instrument of monetary value (often worth more than their own home) would mean taking an unnecessary responsibility early in their music career, he writes.
Chavez notes the children live in a slum where people have been murdered over a cellphone. These recycled instruments, he says, allow children from the most impoverished areas with the most minimal family status to learn music.
Chavez says the long-term goal of the project is to create a symphony orchestra with younger children as part of the regular orchestra program. It would give them the opportunity to practise music and allow them to dream of one day pursuing a musical career.
Dr. Luis Fernando Villalba, the Vancouver-based Honorary Consul of Paraguay, returned home this week from Paraguay, where he met with Chavez and other volunteers involved with the orchestra.
He says the poverty the youth live in is almost unimaginable, which is why its important to come up with a follow-up plan on how to deal with these young people after they return from touring places like Vancouver.
There are kids who take field trips to the capital city of Paraguay who have never had a Coke or seen a hamburger before, he says. Theyve never seen a skyscraper or a palace and have no concept of what an embassy is. Multiply that and youve got these kids. Then they visit Oslo or Kentucky or Vancouver and they say, But, I have to go back to a dumpster.
The question Villalba and others involved with the orchestra are wrestling with now is whats next for these kids. Villalba and others want to ensure the youth can finish school and access higher education.
There are also practical issues, says an emotional Villalba. This is a place where you can get killed for a cellphone. My mom was horrified when I was home and I kept talking on my phone. Then youre going to give a kid a $1,000 violin, something they could get raped and killed for. Thats why we have to consider whats best for these kids.
Villalba says during his recent visit he met a priest from Panama studying the orchestra program with a goal to launch one in his country.
He was talking about opening a chapter in Panama, so maybe one day this could become a world-wide program, says Villalba.
Killarney teacher Urquhart remembers the chance conversation with Maté at their dinner party. He was immediately hooked. When Maté came up with the idea for Instruments of Change, Urquhart was the first to volunteer.
It was right up my alley, says Urquhart. I loved the video so much I posted it on my Facebook page and showed it to all of my classes.
One of the pieces the orchestra plays in the now famous YouTube video is the Spring movement from Vivaldis Four Seasons, which he teaches his classes.
So that resonated with me. In the video you can also hear a boy playing a Bach piece on a cello, says Urquhart. I was blown away that he was able to do that with an instrument made out of oil cans.
Urquhart has his students creating a video montage sending their individual greetings to the Paraguay musicians. The Vancouver School Board and students from Eric Hamber are also contributing to the video project. Urquharts goal is to have students from across the city involved.
Theyre really happy to do those messages, says Urquhart.
Dickens elementary music teacher Paul Alexander says a lot of people were moved when they saw the Landfill Harmonic video.
Watching them using those recycled instruments was very compelling, says Alexander. Even though they have almost nothing theyve scavenged those instruments. In our world you dont often see that commitment. When I saw that I was deeply moved.
Alexander joined Instruments of Change as a volunteer, helping to raise funds and collect donated instruments. Alexander says in a perfect world, the group would raise enough money for student scholarships for members of the orchestra. But hes also aware and concerned about the social quandaries that come with offering temporary assistance to youth living in poverty.
They are extremely poor, even though they live next to a very rich community and are in sight of the parliament buildings, says Alexander. Theres a huge gap between the rich and the poor and we have to be sensitive to that.
Besides musical instruments, the Recycled Orchestra is in desperate want of accessories needed to finish their home-made violins, guitars, cellos, bass, trumpets, flutes and other instruments. Those accessories include strings, bows, bow bristles for stringed instruments, as well as reeds, nozzles and oils for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, trumpets and clarinets. Another badly needed accessory is music stands.
For more information regarding Instruments of Change contact Maté at [email protected], call 604-828-0687 or go to the groups Facebook page facebook.com/instrumentsforchange.
For more information on the feature film and future goals for the orchestra, visit kickstarter.com.
twitter.com/sthomas10
