Young people from the outskirts of Recife will play for Pope Leo

Brazil Agency - The broom, like the body of the cello. The pencil, like the bow that glides over the strings. In the imagination of Callyandra Santos, from Pernambuco, the music in her head even blocked out the sounds of gunshots in the streets of the Coque neighborhood, one of the most violent – ​​and stigmatized – areas of Recife (PE). At the time, at age 9, she had joined the Orquestra Criança Cidadã (Citizen Child Orchestra), a non-profit project that has already included more than a thousand children and teenagers like her. New chords entered through the window of the community which, in 2006, had the lowest HDI (Human Development Index) in the Pernambuco capital. 

Today, at 17, Callyandra was one of 11 members of the Recife youth orchestra selected to perform abroad on a tour of Asia and Europe. They will be accompanied by musicians from countries at war, including Palestinians and Israelis, Ukrainians and Russians, as well as South and North Koreans.

The tour of what is being called the “Concert for Peace” includes performances in Seoul (South Korea, on Tuesday, the 30th), in Hiroshima and Osaka (Japan, on the 4th and 5th of October), in Rome (Italy, on the 7th) and at the Vatican for the Pope (on the 8th).

"Nothing was in vain"

In Callyandra's story, as in that of her colleagues, nothing was simple. Her mother, Sara Coutinho, 47, works every night at a soft drink factory located more than an hour from home. She is entitled to only one day off a week and can only hear her daughter rehearse at lunchtime – while the girl practices with the cello, the mother can relax with this new sound. “It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm very proud,” says the mother. 

Sara is a single mother and learned about the orchestra from her nephew, Davi Andrade, who joined the project at age 7. He graduated in music from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and is now a professor at 26. Davi will also be on the tour. His neighbors are already accustomed to the soundtrack playing on their doorstep. 

"In music, my cousin Davi was the one who inspired me the most. He also became my teacher," says Callyandra.

Having witnessed the boy's journey, the girl also intends to follow the lines of his scores: going to college next year to study music. 

In life, her mother's daily struggle and the memory of her grandmother, who died during the Covid pandemic in 2020, inspire the girl and make her take a deep breath when it's time to play.

“I want to show them that nothing was in vain,” says Callyandra.

Bach to fill your eyes

Among the many pieces of music that have passed through her young strings, Johann Sebastian Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1" makes the girl with the Bun fill her eyes with tears, as she moves the bow between the present, the past and what she wants for the future. 

Davi, Callyandra's cousin and inspiration, remembers that he learned the cello with the instrument supported, even though he was still unable to step on the floor because it was so small compared to the equipment.

“At 13 years old, I knew it would be my profession because it changed my story and that of my family.” 

It was at the orchestra's headquarters that he ate his three meals a day, in an Army barracks (7th Supply Depot), an institution with which the music project has a partnership. As a teenager, the young man played for Pope Francis. 

At just 19 years old, he became a teacher at the orchestra center in a rural area of ​​the city of Igarassu, Pernambuco. There, he teaches music to teenagers who, during the day, work in the fields with their parents. 

"I identify with them. I see myself in them." Besides Igarassu and Recife, vulnerable youth in the city of Ipojuca, on the southern coast, also have opportunities to learn. In total, there are 400 students across the project's three units. For him, as important as the musical notes is the solidarity that emerges in sounds and gestures, between the teachers, the youth, and the musicians. Each encourages the other not to give up.

Music of peace

While playing the cello concerto by Czech composer Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) at his front door in Coque, Davi laments losing friends to the neighborhood's violence, which was once dominated by gangs.

"We had children in the orchestra whose parents were from different factions. Music often helped establish peace," says the musician.

He understands that the orchestra teaches more than just music. "The orchestra literally has a very important social aspect in Coque that can't be explained by numbers. It teaches citizenship." 

The orchestra project was created 19 years ago by Judge João Targino, of the Court of Justice of Pernambuco (TJPE). After participating in the Citizen Child Program, which worked to help people experiencing homelessness, the magistrate decided to create a choir. From voices to instruments, it was a new bold move.

“We chose the Coque community because it had the worst human development indices and the highest rate of violence,” he recalls. 

Maestro José Renato Accioly, 59, says that bringing together young people from such diverse cultures is challenging, but it demonstrates how music has a universal language. He explains that the repertoire will include songs from different nationalities. And, of course, it includes frevo and a medley of Brazilian songs.

"They are top-notch musicians. Regardless of whether they want to pursue music, they will never forget the opportunity they had to be in this orchestra." 

German accent

One of the experienced musicians who will play on the tour is the 32-year-old double bassist Antonino Tertuliano. He was also born in Coque and joined the orchestra when he was only 14 years old. Today, he lives in Germany and is a member of the Niederbayerische Philharmonie Orchester (the Lower Bavarian Philharmonic Orchestra). He is an enthusiast of the project and is part of the organization of the international events. “The meaning that Criança Cidadã has for me is enormous. I have immense gratitude,” he said in an interview with Agência Brasil. 

Whenever he's in Brazil, he visits his old masters and new students. "I introduce young people to my current reality and tell them that it's possible to conquer the world."

Moved, he recalled that when he joined the project, he had no musical knowledge. A student at a local public school, he became enchanted after taking a musical aptitude test.

"The project reshaped the neighborhood and the community. This social project offered not only a profession, but also a different perspective on the future."

“It was difficult to raise a child in Coque”

One of the young people who joined the project and later became a cellist was 21-year-old Cleybson da Silva. He joined the project at 13 and lost his mother to COVID-19 in 2020. "Music completely changed the course of my life," says Clebson, who is now pursuing a degree in music at UFPE. His father, Clayton Oliveira, 44, works installing security cameras.

"Back in the day, it was really hard to raise a child in Coque. It was really dangerous. We'd always hear gunfire," Clayton recalls.

The sounds have changed. For him, the venue's transformation is directly related to the orchestra. His father is proud that his youngest son, Bernardo, 7, has also started playing in the orchestra. 

Ana Clara Gomes, 17, fell in love with the viola while attending the evangelical church she attends. It was love at first sound. So much so that she even began drawing musical notes on the wall as a child. Her life's setting is a suburban landscape, with its gaping roofs and tangled wires on light poles. 

When she learned she would have her first opportunity to travel outside of Brazil, she had five days to rehearse music by the composer Camargo Guarnieri (1907 - 1993). "I studied non-stop." The first musician in her family was raised by her mother, a nursing technician, and saw music as a chance for happiness after her father died eight years ago. 

A year ago, Ana was able to buy her own instrument in installments. And to think that in the beginning, the only thing that acted as the guitar was a soap box, so she could feel the weight of the new instrument. 

Washing powder

Violinist Pedro Martins, 21, also used the laundry detergent box as his instrument and the pencil as his bow. "If you don't hold the violin properly, the music comes out differently." He developed a taste for music by listening to his father, a ride-hailing driver, play the guitar in the living room.

To create music, I would bring CDs home to play on my old stereo. When I started, I didn't have a computer or a cell phone.

"I turned my small living room into my stage. My parents had to listen to me," recalls Pedro.  

His father, George Silva, 41, proudly recalls changing his work schedule to applaud his son, who studies music at UFPE. "He didn't get involved in anything bad. He didn't touch the church guitar. Who would have thought he'd travel the world now? I've never been anywhere near a plane or a college."

The father laments losing a brother, brother-in-law, and friends to "wrong things," particularly drug addiction. His son plays the violin, and he sees the neighborhood he once lived in growing increasingly distant. The Coque, the everyday hardships, the hope that knocked on the neighbors' doors. 

The world changed, and it didn't even need an airplane. It started with a box of laundry detergent.

"Every time I play, I think about my parents and how much they insisted. Today our family feels on cloud nine," said the violinist before boarding.