A gift of music
I had $2000 stashed in my bra since New Orleans. It was a donation to the System of Choruses and Orchestras (SICOR), and I wanted to get it out of my bra and into SICOR's hands as soon as possible. So I quickly walked to the central plaza, holding my arms close to my chest, rolling a suitcase filled with a violin and over fifty music books (donated by Jennifer Leland). I found the SICOR offices; Edgar Salazar Gonzales, the administrator, greeted me warmly: “Que milagro verte!” A big hug, and then he brought me in to see the director and founder, Ruben Dario Suarez Araña. I got all of the news. SICOR is now composed of 18 youth orchestras through the department of Santa Cruz, including the newest in Yacuiba. Orchestras traveled to Chile and Venezuela this year. They received an award for administrative excellence at an international meeting of businesses in Guatemala. They hired a child psychologist to work with the children that come from the countryside to study music; she is helping them adapt to city life. And they are giving concerts constantly, including a few mini Baroque Festivals. In fact that very night there would be a concert of La Orquesta de Cuerdas Hamacas, the string orchestra of the neighborhood called Las Hamacas. He invited me to go. Of course I would.
And then we talked business. I told him that the donation was specifically for administration (last year our donation was for scholarships for students from the provinces to come to Santa Cruz). “Thank you,” replied Ruben. “No one ever wants to fund administrative overhead. Of course they want to pay for instruments and scholarships and music professors. And we are very grateful for those donations, always. With this one office and our staff of four people, we are able to manage 18 orchestras with 600 children involved. But no one ever wants to pay for the office and staff. This money really helps.”
SICOR needs help. The money from the government hasn’t come through. They are hoping for a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank, but the process is long. Ruben is taking out personal loans to keep everything going.
SICOR started eleven years ago in Urubichá, founded by Ruben and Padre Walter. The Baroque Music Festival had launched several years prior (founded by Marcelo Arauz), and brought musicians from around the world to play the rediscovered music manuscripts of the 18th Century Jesuit missions. Interest and awareness of the Baroque music heritage of the region grew. So Ruben and Padre Walter started a youth orchestra in the parish of Urubichá. The idea spread quickly, and Ruben organized youth orchestras throughout the Chiquitanía: San Ignacio, San Javier, Santa Cruz.
SICOR has since become a cultural phenomenon in Santa Cruz. It has created jobs: music students are now music teachers, artisans are making instruments to supply the orchestras, and tourism to the provinces has flourished as people flock there to see the concerts. Music education provides structure and discipline to youth at risk: the flagship orchestra, Hombres Nuevos, is in Plan 3000, an infamously impoverished neighborhood in Santa Cruz. The orchestra is the pride of the neighborhood and the city.
The concert that night was a complete delight. Forty kids from age 7 to 17 played their hearts out to a crowd of several hundred in a pleasant outside amphitheater. Local dignitaries made nice speeches, and Edgar gave brief histories of each music piece. When Miss Bolivia and Miss Cochabamba appeared, the concert became the major social event of Santa Cruz (of course the photographers and video dudes didn't pay attention to the orchestra for the rest of the evening; too busy shooting the beauty queens...particularly Miss Bolivia as she gorged on potato chips and slugged coca-colas during Vivaldi).
The kids were phenomenal; and their pride and love of music were contagious. Three encores, three standing ovations. I was grateful for their gift.
