A social and cultural exchange. A group of children and teenagers in the Grael Project, from the fishing community of Jurujuba, in Niterói (RJ), went – many for the first time – to a classical music concert. Together with their families, they attended a presentation by the Young Concertante Academy (AJC), a social project run by pianist Simone Leitão that trains young musicians from all over Brazil for the job market. The concert was held at Cecília Meireles Salon, in the centre of Rio de Janeiro. The initiative was led by Enauta, which supports both projects.
This interaction between the two projects meant that truck driver Leandro Araújo (37) stepped into a theatre for the first time. He confessed that, “All my life, I never had the opportunity to go to the theatre. It’s something that didn’t even cross my mind. But I thought everything was wonderful. It is really moving to see everything live”.
Mr. Araújo went to accompany his daughter, Lila Ribeiro (aged 10), who has been participating for the last five months in the project that bears the surname of Olympic medallists Lars and Torben Grael. Lila is learning canoeing, swimming and sailing, but took time off from the water to listen to compositions by Francisca Gonzaga, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Jean Sibelius (a Finnish composer of classical music). The young student said that, “I really enjoyed seeing the pianist, the violin and the cello. It was really cool”.
This performance by the Young Concertante Academy was part of the group’s 2023 tour. This year’s program included ten concerts, in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Maestro Daniel Guedes is conducting, with Simone Leitão at the piano. A total of 45 young people are part of the traveling orchestra.
My greatest desire in developing the project came out of pain. The pain of wasted talent in Brazil. Even without having orchestras close to me, when I was growing up, I dreamed of one day seeing and hearing an orchestra up close. The academy was created to welcome these musicians at an important moment in their journeys.
SIMONE LEITÃO – PIANIST AND ORIGINATOR OF THE PROJECT
After Rio de Janeiro, the Young Concertante Academy goes to Juiz de Fora and Caratinga, in Minas Gerais. After 11 years, the project is celebrating 22 productions, 11 Brazilian states covered, more than 800 young musicians from all over the country on scholarships and around 150 concerts performed in more than 50 different cities around Brazil.
Rebeca Kiperman, the Sustainability Manager at Enauta, considers that the exchange between the two social projects contributes to the development of the young people involved. She affirms that, “Education and culture open up space for dialogue and learning. By inserting cultural practices into children’s education and daily lives, we are helping to open doors to knowledge and new thinking, as well as living with diversity”.