At the center of the documentary Children of Las Brisas are the young musicians of El Sistema, the extraordinary, publicly financed, voluntary sector music-education program founded in Venezuela in 1975 by educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu. Playing a range of classical music from the 20th century and earlier, the youth orchestra covers Latin American composers like Mexico’s Arturo Márquez and Venezuelan Antonio Estévez, whose most famous piece is “Cantata Criolla,” which builds in epic fashion through three large-scale movements.
We’ve compiled a playlist with live performance tracks by El Sistema’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, as well as Venezuelan classical pieces performed by other musicians. We also included popular Venezuelan standards from way back in the day, including legendary Venezuelan singer Soledad Bravo and the tropical music group Guaco, who formed in the late ’60s and released many tracks extremely popular in Venezuela—and beyond—over the decades. The playlist concludes with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra’s vibrant rendition of Marquez’s bouncy “Conga del Fuego.”
All of this gives you a flavor of Venezuela, while just scratching the surface of the talents on display in Children of Las Brisas.
Con algo de ñapa, we mixed in some enticing performance videos here of Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in action, for even more of a taste of Venezuela. ¡Disfruten!
Text list of the tracks on our playlist:
- Antonio Estévez – Mediodia en el Llano – Live At Centro de Acción Social por la Música, Sala Simón Bolivar, Caracas / 2008
- Arturo Márquez – Danzón No. 2 – Live At Centro de Acción Social por la Música, Sala Simón Bolivar, Caracas / 2008
- Leonard Bernstein – “West Side Story” – Symphonic Dances: IV. Mambo – Live
- Guaco – Las Caraqueñas – En Vivo
- Guaco – Si Mis Paredes Hablaran – En Vivo
- Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra Of Venezuela – Destierro a Cartagena
- Huascar Barradas – Barlovento Con Cumaco de San Juan
- Los Guaraguao – Barlovento
- Soledad Bravo – Violín de becho
- Soledad Bravo – Allá Viene un Corazón
- Juan Vicente Torrealba – Alma Llanera
- Antonio Lauro – Maria Carolina
- Evencio Castellanos – Santa Cruz de Pacairigua (Suite Sinfónica) – Live At Centro de Acción Social por la Música, Sala Simón Bolivar, Caracas / 2008
- Antonio Estévez – Cantata criolla, “Florentino, el que canto con el Diablo”: II. Lento, tenebroso
- Arturo Márquez – Conga del Fuego – Live
Enjoy a sampling of live performances by Venezuelan musicians from the El Sistema music education program, under the conducting of the world-famous Gustavo Dudamel.
Here’s another look at the story of El Sistema musicians and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, this from the BBC in the UK.
