Daniel's Birthday party

This is one of Venezuela’s great families. Daniel is the son of Ruben and Maria Elisa Sanchez. I met the Sanchez family in February when they were visiting the US looking for a new tuba and visiting colleges for Daniel, a senior in high school. Daniel is a marvelous tuba student and plays with one of the top orchestras in El Sistema. Let’s look and see how a tuba player eats his Birthday cake. Also we will see Daniels great grandmother and grandmother.
Maria Elisa is the master cake cutter and is my shopping consultant and boy does she know how to shop.

Thank you to the Sanchez family for making my stay such a wonderful experience.

My first Venezuelan percussion lesson.

Let me introduce to you Elvis. He is a biology teacher in a Caracas suburb and related to the Lorcas family. Elvis is introducing me to Venezuelan folk music. I bet Mr. Datsko didn't think I could do this.

Elvis is also showing me the largest slum in Latin America. Petare is a city made of a series of barrios which are unregulated buildings stacked on one another. You cannot see the immensity of it by this video but here you will see Petare during the day and at night, which is actually quit beautiful. There are are around 600,000 people living here.

It just so happens today Belamry and I will meet couple from the US who have been working with residence of Petare through the a Southern Baptist missions organization.

Professor Duvardo Echarry and student

On my first day after coming from the airport I met one of the kindest individuals and also one of the most beloved teachers at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory.

Professor Duvardo Echarry is the principle trombone teacher at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory. Here he is teaching one of the youngest players in the Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar. This students is an exceptional player. Doesn’t he remind you a little of Nash Tomey?

VTE Venezuela Trombone Ensemble Concert

The two videos are post concert at the Centro de Accion Social por la Musica in it's smaller theatre for chamber music and solo concerts. It is a fabulous place to perform. The Venezuela Trombone Ensemble (VTE) under the direction of Miguel Sanchez is absolutely a delight. What an amazing sound! The honor to perform with them was truly a great musical experience. I will be promoting their tour in the US sometime next year. So get ready for a real treat.
This video is after my solo portion of the concert. Anyone notice my new jacket?




The second video is the VTE singing "If God were a trombonist"

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!

The Venezuelan Trombone Ensemble is featured on the front page of the El Sistema website. What a sound they put out. This is me rehearsing for a concert on Saturday with the ensemble. I have been invited to be a part of the new trombone school being established by it’s director Miguel Sanchez. What an honor!

http://elsistemausa.org/

la niña at the door

This little girl was standing by the door for the entire rehearsal. She was doing things to well to be standing there as punishment, so when Belmary asked her what she was doing, she answered" I am here to answer the door if someone comes in." It was then that we realized this was a place of honor and the good students took their turn standing there.