Bahia Youth Orchestra travels for its 6th European tour.

Sayonara Moreno – correspondent for Agência Brasil

More than one hundred young people from the Bahia Youth Orchestra are preparing for a European tour with 11 concerts in three countries, between August 30th and September 12th. The group of musicians, aged between 14 and 29, was invited to perform pieces by great names in music history for an audience considered discerning.

The first performances will take place in Montreux, Switzerland, followed by five cities in Italy – including the capital Rome – and finally, in Paris, France. All concerts will be conducted and orchestrated by maestro Ricardo Castro. He says that this is the sixth international tour undertaken by the Bahia Youth Orchestra, the main ensemble of the Neojiba program (State Centers for Youth and Children's Orchestras of Bahia), a social project of the State Government.

"This will be our sixth time, but the challenge is greater because we will have a very high workload. We are taking between 15 and 17 different symphonic works, and that is very difficult for a symphony orchestra, especially a youth orchestra," explains the conductor, who says he cannot repeat pieces already performed by other orchestras on the days of the performances.

"Furthermore, we will debut in Paris, in a hall built to hold 24 people, and we will play in the main hall in Rome. Another challenge is that we will be the resident orchestra of the Montreux Festival, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year and chose our youth orchestra, along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London," comments Ricardo Castro, who celebrates the fact that the Paris premiere has been sold out since May of this year, when tickets sold out in about 2,4 hours. The performance will be the closing of the tour, on September 12th.

Social program

The Bahia Youth Orchestra is the main result of the Neojiba project, currently under the responsibility of the State Secretariat of Justice, Human Rights and Social Development, benefiting approximately 4,6 young people throughout Bahia. The initiative was created nine years ago and, in addition to Salvador, has 11 other centers distributed across more than 30 cities in Bahia, with local partnerships.

In the capital of Bahia operates the Management and Training Center, which includes the main orchestra, the Bahia Youth Orchestra. Thirteen neighborhoods in the city host young multipliers who pass on musical knowledge to other young people, especially those with some type of social vulnerability.

"We are expanding the project to other cities, establishing permanent centers, and we are talking about a context of high social and family breakdown, a lack of belonging and identity. This program brings people together and points out paths for these young people, with multidisciplinary services, such as psychologists. More than 60% of the children and adolescents are from families whose income is less than two minimum wages," says the Secretary of Justice, Geraldo Reis, according to whom, "the search is not only for musical excellence, but also for the social well-being of the musicians."

One of the key figures in the Youth Orchestra is Uriel Borges, who plays the French horn and says he is eager for the tour, which will be his third abroad. "It's always a new feeling to go to another country, to represent our people. So, I have a dream and I will persist in it, no matter what barriers appear. We are here, we rehearse and teach every day, and with that, we are overcoming barriers," says the 19-year-old musician who will be part of the European performances.

"The neighborhood where I live has difficulties. So, Neojiba, through my life, changes other lives. Within the orchestra there are people who might finish school and not know what to do. They [the teachers] always said that we should pursue any profession, but without losing our willpower," says Uriel, referring to the social change in the context of each beneficiary of the program.

In Partnership with

Maestro Ricardo Castro reported that all tour costs will be covered by the partners who invited the young musicians in the host countries. In addition to performing alongside renowned Western classical musicians, Castro says the 104 members of the Bahia orchestra will receive comprehensive care, from travel to meals and comfortable accommodations.

The symphonic works will be presented in the cities of Montreux, Switzerland; Florence, Rome, Rieti, Rimini and Perugia, Italy; as well as the French capital, Paris. The repertoire includes not only classics of Brazilian music, such as the choro "Tico Tico no Fubá," but also works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.

In addition to promoting social integration, many young people from the project begin their professional careers in music. Castro, who is also a pianist, says that the members of Neojiba manage to combine music with school education, resulting in good grades and admission to higher education. He says that every year, a significant number of students from the project enter the Music course at the Federal University of Bahia, UFBA.

However, depending on the instrument the student plays, there are no higher education options in Brazil for in-depth study. This was the case for 18-year-old Érica Smetak, who plays the oboe. Having been in the youth orchestra for eight years, the oboist will be studying in Switzerland to improve her knowledge and technique on the instrument. She says she has already informed the students in Bahia that she will return as soon as she finishes the course.

"When I return, they will be my colleagues, we will play together, and they will have students just like me. I hope to return with more knowledge to pass on to all of them," declared the young woman.

According to the Secretariat of Justice, Human Rights and Social Development of Bahia, approximately 88% of the project's beneficiaries self-identify as mixed-race or black, and 77% meet the criteria for the federal government's single registry, which identifies low-income families.