by HUMBERTO MARQUEZ
With swift movements of white-gloved hands, the choir interprets the concert music. PHOTO/Nohely Oliveros/Fundamusical Bolívar
A sea of white-gloved hands swaying gracefully to the rhythm of tropical music shows the audience in the hallowed Mozarteum concert hall in this Austrian city how Venezuela is combining musical education and social inclusion.
The White Hands Choir made its international debut Thursday as one of dozens of ensembles, eight of them from Venezuela, at the Salzburg Festival, the music and theatre fest held every summer in this city in honour of its most famous son, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
It is made up of 120 children and young people, some of whom raise their voices in song while others execute an imaginative choreography of flowing hand movements, accentuated by their white gloves.
The distinctive feature of this choir is that dozens of its members are youngsters with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive disabilities, and it has been organised by the Venezuelan National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras, widely known as “El Sistema”, to include them in its project to combat poverty and exclusion.
…
With their dark uniforms providing contrast for their gloved hands, the choir was loudly applauded from the start of their programme, which began with sacred music like British composer John Rutter’s “Ave Maria” and Argentine musician Athos Palma’s “Gloria”.
…
Members of the audience, who paid up to 65 euros (86 dollars) for tickets, cheered, clapped, called for encores and were visibly moved to tears.
…
El Sistema got its start in Caracas in 1975, in a basement parking garage where Abreu began to rehearse with a dozen teenagers. He described the social goals of his movement, which now involves some 400,000 children and young people in nearly 400 orchestras and choirs in 280 free music schools throughout Venezuela.
“This is not just an artistic endeavour, but basically a social programme aimed at fighting poverty and marginalisation. A total of 400,000 families are involved in this programme to combat poverty, because poverty is not only material but spiritual, and the most terrible poverty is the lack of an identity,” Abreu said in a recent interview with IPS.
…
“It is not about integrating with normalcy, but about making integration normal. We have people with disabilities who can teach us about music and life, and offer food for reflection to those of us who do not have those disabilities,” said García.
Inter Press Service for more
(Thanks to reader)