They say that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave his first concert at the age of five and soon after began to tour Europe. While in Naples, at the Pietà Conservatory, he played the piano with such mastery that someone in the audience claimed it was an enchantment caused by a ring on his finger. The spirits only calmed down when the boy took off the jewel and continued playing with equal talent, dismissing any accusation of witchcraft.
TO Life Fernandez Palmeyro she was not accused of being a magician, but there is no doubt that there is a lot of magic in this ten-year-old girl who he has played the piano since he was five and the traverse flute since he was six, sings and strums the guitar and has recently discovered her true calling: to be a songwriter.
Oequestas and choirs to make school
The National Program of Children and Youth Orchestras and Choirs emerged in 2010 as a tool for inclusion and development of potential. It began to be deactivated after the dismissal of its director Claudio Spector in 2016 when it had 237 orchestras from all over the country that were left unfinanced, including the El Pato Orchestra.
It was relaunched in November 2021 in a concert with more than 50 musicians from all over the country.
It was from a contest that curiously bears the name of that child musician from Salzburg: “Hey Mozart”, in which she was the winner of the Symphonic Music category and he had the pleasure of listening to the execution of his melody called “Bailarina”, with full orchestra, in the largest room of the Kirchner Cultural Center.
Again like little Amadeus, Vida comes from a family of musicians or art lovers. His mom Yanina plays the guitar; his father Sebastián, is a music teacher, in addition to singing and playing in two bands, El Más Acá and La Covacha; and his older brother Sasha, who was the first to join the El Pato neighborhood orchestra, in the Berazategui district, where they live to take trumpet classes.
“I went in and they showed me all the instruments that could be, and I loved the traverse flute, a little because of the sound and another because of the different way it is played,” says the child prodigy about her first steps in music.
Because the path of Life in music is marked by orchestras. One is the Pato Orchestra, created in the Bicentennial Orchestra project, and the other is the Sonora de Ezpeleta, in Quilmes, where his father teaches.. “Not only are they free, but they even give the children the instruments to learn and practice,” explains Sebastián.
Although the song with which she won the contest is symphonic, the girl who went to sixth grade at the Los Aromos school in El Pato confesses to being a fan of popular and folk music: among his favorites are the carnivals and, if he has to choose a theme, he stays with “Huayno del Sapo”.
In search of the music that best expressed it, he was encouraged to start composing. His first song, “The cycle of life”, is on his YouTube channel and has her as a protagonist interacting with nature. But the Musical Language teacher of the El Pato Orchestra, Andrés Ravina, posed a different challenge: compose a symphonic theme to participate in an exclusive contest for boys.
“I tried to do it with the flute, but I couldn’t think of anything, so I started playing with the electric piano and something came out, to which I had to add a second part. I put ‘Bailarina’ because it reminds me of the melody of a music box, those that have a little doll spinning on top”, he remembers and warns that this activity defined his vocation. “I want to dedicate myself to music and to compose, make the melodies that express me”, she promises and jokes with her father that she “is not good at explaining”, so she is not going to dedicate herself to teaching.
Several months after submitting the theme to the contest, Vida found out that she was one of the winners and during 2021, she was invited to the performance of “Bailarina” by the San Martín National Youth Orchestra at the Néstor Kirchner Cultural Center: “I was able to go listen to it and the orchestral arrangement sounded beautiful.”
These days, on vacation at school and in the two orchestras that keep her busy all week throughout the year, Vida accompanies her father every time their bands have presentations and enjoys the moments when they make music as a family and the Pato’s house becomes the headquarters of a small orchestra.
Music and solidarity in popular neighborhoods
The Andrés Chazarreta Program was born in 2006 with the aim of generating experiences of socialization and solidarity, through the artistic-musical fact, to promote the work of children’s and youth orchestras that work in popular neighborhoods throughout the country.
So far, it has built a federal network of more than 2,000 members and 250 music teachers. One of those experiences is the “Sonora de Ezpeleta” that works in Quilmes.
