SOME GEMS FROM THE “MOUTH OF BABES”:

Kenneth (violin): “I think that God must be like music, because something so beautiful can only be the work of God.”

Daniel (trumpet, a blind boy): “When I play, I feel a connection between my trumpet and myself. Because there is a saying that how you feel is how the trumpet will sound. If you are mad, the trumpet will sound bad, as if it were mad. If you play from the heart, regardless of what piece you play….

I liked the trumpet because of its sound, its shape, the metal, how it feels.”

Daniel (cello): “Here one can see my cello - I cannot sleep if I am not next to my cello.

The first thing I would do is put an orchestra in every institution where children would be able to experience what music is and learn in a fun way. Even though it also involves discipline, and everything is not just goofing around. It is also about learning techniques as a daily habit.”

Joyce (violin): “I feel like I have discovered a new world. A world where I have fun - I laugh, I cry, I learn from my teachers. I steal their ideas, their techniques - all that. That is where you life goes - there with the instrument. Then you are only aware of the instrument and of school, and you forget everything else, you forget vices.”

Rony (trumpet): “I used to play the cornet. They gave it to me because of my size and age. Then I went to the trumpet seminar, and there I met the trumpeter from the Berlin Philharmonic, Thomas Clamor. He heard me, and said my sound was good… and he brought me this trumpet.”

Lila (violin): “I was told that the motto “TO PLAY AND TO FIGHT” was created when Maestro Abreu started this orchestra system. He had no hope that it would work. Someone came up to him and said ‘You must always fight for what you want, especially if it is about music,’ and told him always to remember he has to PLAY and FIGHT.”

The CD “Mahler: Symphony No. 5″ with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela was a FanFaire CD Giveaway.

Source of quotes: The award-winning film by Alberto Alvero, Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight), available on DVD, that tells the phenomenal story of EL SISTEMA.

Credit: Images and video clip courtesy of and with permission of Deutsche Grammophon.