Capacitación

Ask any Bogotano about their perception of Colombia’s Chocó Region, and you’ll likely hear that it is a dangerous and remote place, visited primarily for whale-watching. These inter-regional biases are not uncommon—decades of armed conflict have disrupted networks of community and social cohesion, fragmenting them and threatening the practices that sustain communal life. And though a shared sense of Colombian identity exists, each of the country’s regions maintains a distinct cultural character that is often rooted in music.

Before traveling to Chocó, my perception of Colombia’s outer territories was similarly close-minded.

The story of Sinfónica Azteca begins about five years ago, when the world was just beginning to reemerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the globe, music programs and youth orchestras were struggling to survive. The need to restore trust in live music and reignite enthusiasm among young musicians had never been greater.

In Mexico, this posed a double challenge, since we had always lacked a national youth orchestra capable of uniting the country’s young musicians in high-caliber, immersive artistic experiences.

With their decades of positive impact and wealth of institutional knowledge, it would have been easy for DWS to focus on maintaining their success. Instead, we at the Playing For Change Foundation were recently privileged to partner with DWS to bolster and expand their music program. The initial goals of our partnership were simple: identify and hire professional music educators who can help take the existing program to the next level, and maintain the standard of excellence that DWS has achieved in its other extracurricular programming.

Cuando recibí la noticia de que, a través de un programa de intercambio, podría pasar cuatro meses en Zumix (un programa de desarrollo creativo para jóvenes en Boston, Massachusetts, EE.UU.), consulté su sitio web. Leí la frase "Powered by Youth" y pensé: "Claro, suena bien, pero probablemente sólo sea un lema pegadizo".

Pero cuando llegué a Boston y asistí a mi primer evento Zumix, un concierto el domingo por la noche en un parque local, me di cuenta de que esas palabras eran ciertas.

Cuando el Proyecto Rizoma se puso en marcha en 2022 en Santo Tomé y Príncipe y Guinea-Bissau, sabía que nos embarcábamos en un viaje ambicioso. Nuestro objetivo era claro: crear orquestas sociales en comunidades con recursos limitados e importantes retos sociales.

En agosto de 2024, el Festival de los Sueños reunió a jóvenes artistas de toda Corea del Sur en un campamento celebrado en las montañas de la provincia de Pyeongchang. El campamento reunió por primera vez a miembros de la Orquesta Juvenil de los Sueños y del Equipo Juvenil de Baile de los Sueños, que se unieron para formar el Grupo Artístico de los Sueños. El campamento de tres días culminó con una actuación conjunta en la que mostraron su talento colectivo.