(Montreal) The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) will offer a new educational program for children aged 4 to 16 in Montreal North.
Posted at 12:06 p.m.
As part of the El Sistema OSM program, which will roll out over the next five years, young people will learn to play an instrument in a group for free, four times a week, after school, for one hour.
Four schools are involved: Saint-Rémi and La Fraternité primary schools, as well as Calixa-Lavallée and Aux Mille Voix secondary schools. More than 600 young people will benefit from these courses.
As well as learning an instrument, children will take part in different musical activities, which it is said will allow them to develop their social skills and personal discipline.
It’s a project close to the heart of the OSM’s musical director, Rafael Payare, who graduated from the El Sistema program in his native Venezuela. He learned the horn at the age of 14 thanks to this famous program.
“It’s a dream that’s finally taking shape. Without El Sistema, I would neither be the person I am today nor the artist I was able to become,” he said in a statement.
-“This program has opened doors for me and allowed me to experience a career I could never have imagined. »
He added that Music should be accessible to all, and not a “luxury reserved for a privileged few”.
The OSM launched the Music for Children program in 2016 at the Saint-Rémi school, which has made it possible to train 1,800 children over time.
The El Sistema OSM program will act in complementarity with the latter.
“Today, with the launch of the El Sistema OSM program, we are taking a major step forward: an inclusive and free project that brings together young musician-teachers from diverse backgrounds, passionate about transmitting their knowledge, and students engaged in daring adventure of becoming orchestral musicians,” declared Geneviève Bigonnesse, senior manager of Music for Children.
