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[maxgallery id="38282"]It began with a violin made of metal cans, a piece of bed headboard and wooden spoons – all found in a trash dump.
It grew with the addition of a cello built from a discarded oil drum, a saxophone fashioned from door keys, bottle caps and shirt buttons, and a drum head crafted out of old x-ray film.
In 2008, a film producer stumbled across the story of children who lived by the trash dump in Cateura, Paraguay, and had learned to play the recycled instruments (which now have earned an exhibit in the Phoenix Musical Instrument Museum).
In 2015 the documentary she filmed, Landfill Harmonic, became a sleeper hit. Before long, music director Favio Chávez and members of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura were touring the world to perform in sold-out concert halls -- and providing no small measure of hope and support to their impoverished, disaster-stricken community back home.
As Chávez summed it up, “The world sends us garbage. We send back music.”
On Nov. 14, members of the orchestra visited The Steward School’s Bryan Innovation Lab as the Fall Visiting Innovators.
Steward families as well as students saw screenings of the documentary prior to the visit, which featured interactions with the Cateura students and director as well as a filmmaker. The day wrapped up with a Musical Maker Fair in the Bryan Innovation Lab in which students and visiting siblings created their own instruments.
Children enjoyed making and plucking banjos built from jar lids, tongue depressors and rubber bands, and playing flutes carved from plastic straws. They beat on drums made of wine barrels, experimented with music boxes formed from Altoids tins, and made music using “wired” bananas. Finally, they topped the afternoon off with a performance blending the efforts of Recycled Orchestra members with Steward School singers and musicians.
Cary Jamieson, director of the Bryan Innovation Lab, noted that the visit with the Cateura contingent beautifully complemented not only the school-year theme of inspiration, but school values such as sustainability and “a passion for making.”
“It truly spoke to the idea of improving our world with what we have on hand,” said Jamieson. “To me, it’s one of the most innovative and inspirational stories out there.”
While previous guests of the Visiting Innovators Program (VIP) have included inventors, best-selling authors, and such prominent figures as maker movement leader Gary Stager and Sean Greenwood, head of public relations for Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, the orchestra members were the first musicians to take part in the program.
But as Chávez, the orchestra director, pointed out, “While performing at Steward, I could feel the truth of the message that music can unite people across different cultures and communities. . .
“We all have different stories, backgrounds, and tastes. But we are all human beings, and music allows us to connect,” said Chávez.
“That’s why we love music – it builds bridges.”
To view a trailer from the Landfill Harmonic documentary, visit landfillharmonicmovie.com. To learn more about the Visiting Innovators Program, visit stewardschool.org/vip.
