La Ronconoda

Never have I seen so many happy children. Most of the students on this video are from one of the oldest nucleus in el Sistema. La Ronconoda is in Coche, a suburb of Caracas. Remember this is only one of 260 Nuclei in the country. This one has about 2,000 students alone. They meet in a public school and since all students are given this experience with no cost to them almost the entire 500 students at the school are involved along with students in the surrounding neighborhoods. The Director is Eugene Correño and both of his sons are in the ensembles. This nucleus has two locations because it keeps growing. The new part is an old racetrack.

On this video:
The lower school, which has three levels of orchestra, with pre music classes and the “Paper Instrument Orchestra. The paper orchestra, which you will see demonstrated by my new adult friends, are holding instruments made of paper by the little children and their families. The little students are involved making the instruments before they receive their actual instruments. They learn much in the 2 months before they actually hold a real instrument. The orchestra director conceived this concept when there were no instruments and they had to keep the little ones motivated while waiting on real instruments to materialize. (How is that for flexibility?)

1st you will see the cutest kids in pre school music, singing and playing percussion instruments, next are examples of the “paper instruments”. Next I get the privilege of sitting in the pre school string orchestra. The next 2 orchestras you will hear are the primary orchestra and then last is the intermediate orchestra.
Enjoy!