An impressive joint effort patterned after a Venezuelan youth orchestra begun by Los Angeles Philharmonic’s director Gustavo Dudamel is bringing noteworthy gains to poor kids in Guadalajara.
The Lomas del Paraiso Youth Orchestra (Orquesta Infantil y Juvenil Lomas del Paraiso), begun by Mexico’s federal arts agency, CONACULTA, has held numerous concerts in its four years of existence. It is composed of youngsters from a low-income neighborhood near Guadalajara’s zoo.
“They have worked very intensely and improved a lot,” said their director Jose Antonio Herrera, noting that poverty is part of the reason they have excelled. “They don’t have many other options for their free time, such as swimming pools, so they practice a lot.”
“They just played a concert in the Degollado theater,” said Martha Saavedra, a member of the Guadalajara Rotary Club #7661, which helps support the orchestra. In 2011, Saavedra’s club teamed up with the Santa Rosa Rotary Club in California to help bring the youngsters to perform at Sonoma State University. Saavedra noted that the state of Jalisco assisted in the trip, as well as one very helpful individual.
That individual is Shari Shamsavari, a multilingual U.S. philanthropist and psychologist, who has been key in the orchestra’s success. “Shari has worked a lot,” Saavedra said. “She lives part of the time here in Guadalajara and part of the time near San Francisco.”Shamsavari says her involvement has been “a wonderful adventure” that she took “without knowing it was taking me on this challenging and rewarding path.” One of Shamsavari’s principal activities has been to get birth certificates for a number of Guadalajara children who had none, including some kids in the youth orchestra. The young musicians needed them for passports to travel to perform at SSU, Shamsavari’s alma mater.
“Doctor Shari,” as she is known, found the orchestra exactly in sync with her long interest in art therapy for youngsters who had had difficult experiences. The drive to obtain birth certificates for kids also engaged her desire to protect children.
“Most of the children [who didn’t have birth certificates] were not born in a hospital,” Shamsavari said. “They could not enter some schools or get jobs without IDs. Also, for security reasons, it’s important to have an ID. There are kids running around and nobody knows who they are. They could get involved in gangs or drugs.”
“It was difficult to get the birth certificates,” Saavedra said. “Doctor Shari had to put in a lot of time.”
In January, many children were presented with their birth certificates in Guadalajara. Saavedra says that more are coming soon. The project has been named “Sueños por Una Identidad” [Dreams of an Identity].
“Doctor Shari was given an honorific title by the state congress — Children’s Ambassador — because of all her work,” added Saavedra.
Meanwhile, the orchestra is threatened by political changes, said Director Herrera. “Continuity doesn’t exist for such programs, because typically when the government changes, they want to bring in their own projects and scrap the existing ones,” he lamented. He said that some businesses have helped pay expenses for the 16 teachers and three practice halls the orchestra uses, but more help is needed.
Contact Director Herrera: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Information on “Doctor Shari”: www.doctor-shari-services.com. Contact Guadalajara Rotary Club #7661: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.