Tag Archives: Simón Bolívar Orchestra
Windows
There is an inexplicable gap between the opera buffa performed by the principal voices of Venezuela’s political power and the opera seria crafted in the ranks of an institution such as our National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras [El … Continue reading
Epiphanies
José Antonio Abreu, who has organized hundreds of monumental concerts on every kind of stage around the world, could not contain his emotion when he related the most recent phenomenon he had witnessed in the stadiums of Mérida and Barquisimeto … Continue reading
Dominoes and Death
“Even though I’m charging more, I’m earning less each day,” Carlos Duarte repeated to me in one of our interminable rehearsals for a brief tour in 1994. “And I don’t stop playing.” He often took stock of his musical life … Continue reading
The Antidote
The Latin Grammy Awards, whose ceremony has the perfume of novelty, the shine of a platinum disc, is glorified in its own right this year (2009) for a simple reason: the grand prizewinner never worked in the register of prizes … Continue reading
The Pillars of Castillo
The current Venezuelan demographic presents an alarming imbalance, given the disparity between children and the adults capable of educating them. Rather than celebrate the virtues of childhood – a custom of romanticism revamped by the era of the chip, where … Continue reading
Zambrano Went Out to Sow
One of the most unusual stages in the history of Venezuela’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras [El Sistema] was the creation, ex nihilo and almost from the beginning, of orchestral nuclei in the most remote areas of the … Continue reading
