Mutual Teaching, Mutual Learning at the Queen of Paradise Program

 
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Mutual Teaching, Mutual Learning at the Queen of Paradise Program

Jesús Briceño, Co-founder and Director, The Queen of Paradise Program, as told to The Ensemble

03-05-2024

Editor’s Note: In this article, we celebrate a particular kind of achievement: sharing one’s musical learning culture with a completely different culture, while honoring each culture’s differences. In our increasingly global field, such undertakings are more and more common—and they take imagination, subtle attention, and mutual respect. Creative and mutual adaptability seems to be the key. 

Violinists taking bow in Santa hats. Photo: Queen of Paradise.

On December 10, 2023, an audience of 500 people gathered in the fishing community of Vanimo, Papua New Guinea, for a two-hour concert performed by the youth orchestral, choral, and recorder ensembles of the Queen of Paradise Program. The varied repertoire of 36 pieces ranged from Merle Isaac’s Apollo Suite, Ennio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe, and Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria to a number of Christmas carols and, of course, a beginner ensemble playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

The concert was received with energetic applause for the young people’s musical energy and passion—especially notable because such concerts are a recent tradition for the community. Says Maestro Jesús Briceño, co-founder and director of the program: “When I arrived in Vanimo in October 2018, I met a wonderful group of children who had been eagerly awaiting my arrival for several days! They were excited to learn what a musical instrument was, and they wanted to start playing right away.”

Maestro Jesús Briceño conducting choir and orchestra students. Photo: Queen of Paradise.

Maestro Briceño helped form a string ensemble of 55 children, 9–14, and they began coming together on Tuesdays through Saturdays to learn recorder, musical language, choir, and, violin, through the inclusive ensemble model developed by Venezuela’s El Sistema, in which the Maestro had grown up and become a violinist and nucléo music director. Two months later, the young people presented their first Christmas concerts in each of the four villages that constitute Vanimo. The recorder and violin ensembles played, and the choir sang two- and three-part pieces, including “Dona Nobis Pacem,” the South African hymn “Siyahamba,” and Christmas carols.

The parents and community of Vanimo, says Maestro Briceño, were discovering that ensemble music learning was a clear contribution to their children’s lives, and within those first two months, their support was clear: “They built improvised platforms for concerts in their villages, made meals for all the children, and collaborated in a variety of ways so that their children’s presentations could be successful.”

Full group of kids and Jesús on beach. Photo: Queen of Paradise.

The following year, Maestro Briceño added and taught viola, cello, and double bass, toward the goal of forming the country’s first string orchestra. As in El Sistema, mentoring and peer teaching were central to the process. In Maestro Briceño’s words: “Every child with greater knowledge in their music discipline—whether stringed instrument, recorder, or voice—helps those who are newer or have less experience. The effect becomes contagious throughout the whole program.”

The Queen of Paradise program was originally the brainchild of Father Miguel de la Calle, a priest at the IVE (Instituto del Verbo Encarnado) mission in Papua New Guinea. Father Miguel, says Maestro Briceño, “had full confidence, from day one, in the power of music to positively change lives.” The mission funds and supports all aspects of the program, from instruments to transportation and food; two of the Mission’s Sisters help with the choir and recorder students, aged 9 to 18.

Jesús conducting the children’s choir. Photo: Queen of Paradise.

Today, the program includes 80 children in three ensembles: string orchestra, choir, and recorder choir. Maestro Briceño hopes that in 2024, the program will be able to add 30 more children, incorporate a wind ensemble, and invite teachers from the Venezuelan Sistema to come and teach in Vanimo. And he aims to bring at least one ensemble to perform in an international festival in Indonesia.

“All the ensembles have shown great evolution, both individually and collectively,” he says. He adds that several of the older students have emerged as new leaders of the program. “These youth leaders have assumed their responsibility with commitment; in the same way, the less advanced children respond with joy to what their more advanced peers offer them.” In particular, he mentions Eliora, who entered the program at 13 and brought a great deal of love and dedication to eventually becoming the concertmaster and a string instructor, and Jackson, who began at age 11, traveling for 45 minutes each day to and from a remote village, and is now a viola instructor.

“This flourishing of dedication to mutual teaching and learning,” says Maestro Briceño, “means that the program will, without doubt, have a beautiful future.”

Choir, March 2024, Papua New Guinea, Queen of Paradise Program, Recorded Choir, String Orchestra, Vanimo, Youth Empowerment

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