Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
"Melodies of Trash"
Good evening...
As you know I am an orchestra director
which is a profession that requires great passion...
A profession that requires one to have a lot of contact with others
and connecting with the hearts of those who one directs
in a framework of discipline.
The director figure generates magic...
Some might remember Toscanini, von Karajan, Stokowski...
But as my ten year old son says,
"Father, when will you stop fleeing mosquitos off the stage?"
So today I want to give you all the opportunity to be my colleagues.
Invite you all to direct…
maybe not a whole orchestra
but a great flute!
The first lesson to learn directing is moving the orchestra.
Holding your hand in this position
Up… and down
One, two...
Close your eyes and feel the pleasure
One, two...
We close our eyes and we direct Juan who will be playing Bach
One, two...
Thats good... we will now change instrument please
Concentrate and remember this version
and we will lead this one a little faster
One, two...
Thank you...
Which version did you like better?
The first one? The second one?
The second one...
Here we have a flute
It is professional, made of silver, of a renown brand...
...and here we have another flute
made out of trash...
A water pipe found in the trash...
...coins, and parts of used spoons...
...and that's what I'll be talking about breifly.
This is a program called "Sounds of the Earth"
It is to transform societies through music
Not only for children that are homeless or from rural areas
as we learned previously in Martin Burt's conference
But also for adults...
We try to incentive the entrepreneurial spirit in people
and this is a global phenomenon
You might remember Bill Clinton was widely aplauded
donated his Saxophone to benefit many campaigns
that helped public schools' self-esteem
taking on musical studies once again.
There is a musical movement in many countries
empowered by juvenile orchestras...
Maybe the most heard of is from Venezuela
which is a complex system backed by ministries
and has been around for a while now.
But, to be fair
this movement that brings happiness and opportunity to develop for children
isn't just through music.
It began here in Costa Rica in 1971
as many other brilliant ideas that have been thought up here...
and have inspired so many others.
I was studying in Italy at the time, when the president of the republic
in a time where all countries were moving towards development
investing and giving credit, in many countries for benefit of their armed forces
In my country they built a replica of the White House
and a Versaille-style mansion...
...among others...
and we never saw those credits and investments
But this visionary president of the republic would say:
"Why would we want tractors without violins"
Wealth is produced at unspeakable rates
with all the technology we have these days...
...it is an incredible speed...
But wisdom moves at a slower pace
so they had to complement the investment made on those tractors
with education and culture
because if we are rich but with no culture
we won't know how to enjoy the wealth.
Now, if we never reach that situation of wealthiness and we continue to be poor
but we do have culture
we will be able to live in poverty with dignity...
And that is what inspired me through the years
to continue to be focused on my work
and programs of social integration
through the creation of music, schools...
...so that children make friends instead of live on the streets
and become stronger by creating music.
Workshops to create instruments, and philharmonic societies.
Since as musicians, we are always seeking support
of those who work with us...
on his first day of class our guitar player found his new vehicle...
a sponsor that will take him very far.
We are also working on opportunities for development:
promote self esteem
it's amazing how children who live on the streets and in rural areas
from the moment they pick up an instrument
even if it's just to play one note
one can see how his entire attitude changes.
Strengthening cultural identity:
being carriers of memories...
so cultural memories aren't left locked in drawers and archives...
but instead having people bring those memories to life
entrepreneurial spirit and the social practice of music
that pushes all of this forward.
Here we have an example of one of our orchestras
and how the system works, under a tree with the instruments
and wooden lecterns built by their parents
And these kids that start without a classroom, playing under the trees
later have an opportunity to play with others...
Here we can see 1500 playing together...
...which also helps increase their social relationships...
We call it the "School of Life Orchestra"
We don't try to teach them how to play music...
That is what universities are for...
We make music... Together we create beauty...
So what the orchestra actually does
is use different exercises and dynamics
to develop democratic values such as honesty...
It is forbidden to lie...
solidarity... tolerance...
discipline and respect...
which are values that one easily understands through this activity
and later passes on to one's personal life...
Here we see a flute player...
he was a boy like any other who was a little lost at age 12...
we see him in his home with his chickens...
he was hesitant the first time we gave him a flute for the first time.
The second step towards creating music is you have to be clean...
well bathed and smelling nice...
and being part of a disciplined group of people
And today Juan, who you just listened to, is a university student...
and he is paying for it himself.
The question was "how do we get this done?"
Education delivered through art...
...and make it sustainable
We have seen many similar projects that are born... and soon die
because of the different interests of politicians and current heads of state...
Projects that have great potential but a short life...
Many corporations as well...
the board of directors changes and their orientation is now different
So we had to develop a new strategy
and thanks to the help we had from AVINA Foundation
we put together the structure and our vision
and we have been around for 8 years without any public wealth...
So for education through art we invented
"Conservatory on Wheels"
A concept that helps teachers roam in many places
reducing some of our costs.
And for sustainability we work with adults
so they help manage the program.
They are like the general managers of their communities
and baiscally command the project.
To refresh your memories, Paraguay is in the middle of South America
between the two giants, Argentina and Brazil
This is the basic route...
We started in 2002 with 18 towns...
1700 youths...
From 2005 to 2008 we grew...
and that is basically the process...
What is marvelous about our program is
the money we receive from donors is only about 8%
The other 92% comes from the beneficiaries
because we have invested, not only in the formation of these young people
but also
we have helped the parents and guardians from every town
and every neighborhood
so they develop their own fund raising
and they develop their own business plan
and manage their own accounting
and the speed at which this grew is truly incredible.
And not only in social work,
but also in tangible impacts.
That's why we created what we call "Philharmonic Societies"
Here we have a meeting with one of the societies...
...and some of the buildings that have been contructed.
We can see a shack and a workshop they made...
...some of the people in a meeting and even small constructions.
Here we see a more traditional system in a town called Paraguari
the children with their parents always surrounded by happiness...
Adults who didn't have money to donated their time to work on the construction
Neighbors donated stones and one of them donated the land to build on...
...and this luxurious place is the house of music, the school of music in the town.
Here are some other examples...
One we did in an Indian reservation...
These are different situations...
In some cases we have even bigger investments...
This one is almost $500,000
brought in by another group of people that implement a very different strategy
but developed by them without our intervention.
As we saw at the beginning, there is more than 150 towns
and in our central offices, we are 5...
Here is the first philharmonic society in an Indian reservation in Paraguay
having a meeting and celebrating.
And the concept of "Conservatory on Wheels" with the teachers...
Here we see one of the teachers sharing with another one and creating leaders
in every community which will later continue the project.
We also introduced the production of musical instruments
and today, they produce about 15% of the instruments we use...
Check out the pride shown by those that constructed the contrabass
And later we help incentive what we call...
social engineering that will create bonds and trust between people...
Music is one of the forms of art that have a better chance of creating friendship
So we work on festivals
where children and adults participate
and we have a collective learning process.
Here we can see 2,000 playing together...
Here there's 300 harps from Paraguay...
we had to take them to a soccer stadium to take the picture.
A very big concert...
with more than 2,000 musicians playing together...
Imagine that... now that you know how to direct an orchestra...
Later on, this took an international turn...
with an orchestra we recorded with five years ago
bringing talents together
from first world and developing countries
to issue a message against discrimination by race, religion or society
We went throughout Europe
all year until November...
Here we are in Vienna...
where the Vienna Philharmonic practices playing in an auditorium.
This is a little bit of our vision...
It isn't one that supports conformism
It supports something we have been pursuing...
...it supports what we call...
bringing intelligence back as a trend among young people...
living smart...
You can read it here:
The progress in a town is measured by the level of happiness of it's people
I have friends who are millionaires...
...cooped up in their mansions...
...lonely and with no friends...
...and I know people who are very poor with an incredible dignity.
This is a picture I love
because it is part of a project we have with Martin Burt
It is still in testing stages and it has to do with micro financing...
This system works
with small groups of women who are friends...
...and there is no guarantee behind the loan...
It is one of the most perfect credit systems in the world...
So we are creating what we like to call...
"Philharmonic Women Entrepreneurs"
The build their businesses with micro financing...
...but we also give them and their children music...
...and between different neighboring groups...
...we create bonds...
...to help make a bigger circle of trust...
...which will later help them make better businesses...
...that will be superior than what they are doing at this time...
... basically giving a step forward
Here we see what we are going for...
...recycled seats...
Here we have the last part of "Melodies of Trash"
This is a trash depository and it's surroundings in Asunción (Paraguay)...
where over 3,000 people reside.
Once when I was invited to get to know the place and I was impressed...
...not by the poverty or the smell, because I was expecting it...
...but by how a perfect system works when surrounded by chaos...
There are five organized syndicates...
...that work perfectly even among mostly ignorant people...
...and they work and respect each other...
...there is an equilibrium between all the desperation.
But I was impressed by a mother who had her newborn child in a basket...
...surrounded by filth...
...while she did her own things...
So I thought we had to do something to get the children away from this place...
...and we created a music school...
...so children could stay, at least most of the time...
away from this place.
Here we see a girl, Jessica, in front of her house...
...her violin is worth more than her whole house...
Here are another three...
...the grandmother, on the left, didn't go to school...
...she was never able to leave that place...
The mother got to third grade...
And both of them swore the child would not follow the same path...
That she would have another destiny... and with her violin, this is coming true...
In our project, as I said before, adults have to do their part...
...so they had to contribute instruments as well...
One of the fathers had no money...
...and he asked "Do you think this will work?"
And that's when they started constructing a violin from a pan and a fork...
...and we found out children could start their studies with those instruments.
We will briefly take a look at the instruments...
...I would like to invite our percussionist...
...the architect... lets go back to our previous profession...
A violin...
...made from an old pan that sounds great.
A cello that is very practical because...
besides being constructed out of an oil can...
it has its own transport system...
...that makes it much more comfortable than a normal one...
And a guitar, made out of candy wrappers...
...we eat a lot of candy made from potatoes...
...and it has only one problem...
...it has an expiration date...
And the saxophone...
...is made out of trash as well...
...spoons and zinc...
...and beer bottle caps which are quite common...
...and it sounds very good as well.
Finally...
...we can show you...
...a drum, made out of x-rays...
...so medicine is also contributing to music...
We will finish with this collective creation...
...made by our musicians...
...only instead of directing, you can follow the rythm...
Thank you very much!
We want to make it clear that he is not a member of the band...
...but he will be playing with us...
We brought more instruments than musicians...
...and thought we should have somebody playing percussion...
Thank you for playing with us...
TEDx PuraVida