Children’s Orchestra Rehearsal Open to Families
As part of the El Sistema residency at the Salzburg Festival 2013, two children’s orchestras from different countries and education systems meet for several days of joint rehearsals: the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Infantil de Venezuela and the Mozart Children’s Orchestra of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation.
As a state education programme, the Venezuelan Orquesta Infantil offers children and teenagers the opportunity to “get off the streets” and into a functioning social cultural network, thus also developing national self-confidence.
The Mozart Children’s Orchestra of the Mozarteum Foundation was founded in order to enable young musicians to gain experience in orchestral playing, and to learn demanding orchestral literature – after all, with the challenge, motivation increases – also regarding the cooperation required for such a task. The young musicians are prepared mainly by the very well-developed network of music schools, which already provides individual lessons at the highest level. Mozart’s works, with their much-quoted lightness and directness, are especially well suited for combining these two educational programmes, allowing the participants to throw themselves into the orchestral material with verve and an appetite for playing, succumbing to the connective power of music. The final highlight of the joint rehearsal phase will be the orchestra encounter at the Great Hall of the Mozarteum, to whom all are cordially invited in order to convince themselves of the enormous energy of these young musicians aged 7 to 12, who will be playing with all their heart, mind and know-how.
White Hands Choir – Concerts for Families
The White Hands Choir (Coro de Manos Blancas) was founded in 1999 as part of El Sistema’s Special Education Programme in Venezuela, with the goal of improving the social integration of children and teenagers with various handicaps by having them make music with non-handicapped children.
The choir consists of two groups which have different artistic forms of expression and thus complement each other in a fascinating way: one part of the chorus, consisting of children with impaired cognitive or motor skills or visual impairments, sings, while the deaf-mute members of the choir accompany the singing with expansive, artistically expressive movements – with their hands in white gloves.
The White Hands Choir will give its first performances outside Venezuela as part of the El Sistema residency at the Salzburg Festival in 2013, making two appearances at the Mozarteum, which children, teenagers and adults will find equally impressive.
All links to Program for Children and Teenagers 2013