When eight year old Luis Szaran heard a classical guitarist play, he immediately knew that music was his life. However Luis was the eighth child of a poor rice farmer and when his father learnt about his ambition to become a musician he was forbidden from playing music. Luis did not allow this to deter him and he secretly practiced music with a neighbor. By 12 he was composing short songs. Soon the head of a music school recognized his genius and sent him off to Europe on a scholarship to study music. When Luis returned he was an accomplished musician and slowly rose to become the conductor of Paraguay’s most prestigious national symphony.
However Luis was not satisfied with his spectacular success. He saw the role of music as an instrument of social transformation. He began touring the country, trying to establish a connection and trust with local communities. He wanted to bring music to the poorest of poor and he wanted his program to be completely free. This is how “Sounds of Earth” was born. For poor children music became an avenue for hope. Where formerly they had no purpose and resorted to drug and violence, now they have music to look forward to. Even communities benefited as they learnt to organize themselves to raise funds, to organize community events, to find a home for the music school, etc., The Sound Of Earth is now a fantastic success. It is self sustaining as it is run by local communities, and it thrives in hundreds of villages and poor communities.
One spectacular offshoot of “Sounds of Earth” program is the “Recycle Orchestra”. This came about when Sound Of Earth went to Cateura, a very poor community at the outskirts of the town. This community literally exists on top of a landfill, where people make a living by recycling trash. The response here was so great that the number of students outstripped available instruments. On a whim, Favio, the director who is in charge of the Sound of Earth program in Cateura, approached Cola who is an expert recycler with an idea. Could he fashion instruments out of trash? Cola was given a violin as a sample and soon he had fashioned an instrument from scraps of recycled trash. They laughed when they first saw the instrument, but soon realized that this was something that could be really useful. This could give a poor kid a chance to practice music, which would otherwise not be available to him. From this grew the idea of Recycle Orchestra that has now come to symbolize the hope of poor children of Paraguay.
Related:
Frontline Program on Sound Of Earth.
Full You tube movie on Recycle Orchestra