Programas Mundiales de Música

In the winter of 2013, Project: Music Heals Us Founder Molly Carr shattered a glass bowl into her left hand on the eve of her concert tour, halting her performing career. In the months that followed, she enrolled in a nursing aide course through the American Red Cross and was assigned to work with Ruth, a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient who, staff warned her, hadn’t spoken in years. The advice she received was practical: get in, get the job done, harden yourself to the screams, and get out.

She knew that the care and attention all people need required something more. So she sat down, held Ruth’s hand in silence, and Ruth, the woman who had not spoken in years, turned and began speaking in complete sentences.

Molly came back every day of that residency. On the last day, she promised Ruth that she would return, and bring her viola next time.

More than 12 years ago, during my first visit to the then-fledgling Sinfonía por el Perú program, I met a boy—let’s call him Juan—who stood out from the crowd of children. Not only because his double bass was more than twice his size. It was also his charisma, the joyful enthusiasm with which he played his giant instrument, and, even then, his social skills and his attentive devotion to his fellow musicians at his núcleo in the La Victoria district of Lima, Peru.

El pasado mes de julio, el calor del verano portugués y el mar de Lisboa como telón de fondo dieron la bienvenida a un variopinto grupo de profesores y jóvenes músicos de programas musicales de acción social de más de diez países. Entre acentos variados y miradas curiosas, se hizo palpable una energía compartida: la emoción de los encuentros cara a cara entre personas que sólo habían podido interactuar virtualmente durante sus cuatro meses de preparación. También se palpaba el entusiasmo compartido de personas que hacen lo que más les gusta: enseñar y hacer música juntos.