Energy and Music: Venezuela Youth Orchestra

Steven Vance, the leader of Extreme Strings, sent along this note and pointers:

Thought you might enjoy seeing this group from Venezuela . A musican friend had shown me this before but over the weekend it came up at the Yamaha String Educators Summit. The Dean of Music at Indiana U. (Bloomington) was discussing their new outreach program which was designed after the Venezuelan model.

These are mostly concert clips but you've never seen anything like the energy and enthusiasm. This is something like what I'd like to see Extreme Strings events become. There are more clips available once you get to YouTube.

The Promise of Music:



From Bonn:

Neighborhoodwalk (s) while in Beijing

What is great to one, may not be great to another.

The Great Wall isn't my true "neighborhood." However, it is a place that was visited in 2008 and five years prior. It is a wonderful place to experience. You can't 'walk' it -- rather -- you need to "climb."

And we're less without friends. These are our Beijing friends. Photo shows Erik, Grant, Fay (Simon's mother), and Simon.