“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” — it’s a saying they’re taking to heart in Cateura, Paraguay, a small town where impoverished families live along a vast landfill. Cateura’s residents can’t afford many things that American families often take for granted, and that includes buying new musical instruments for their kids. Indeed, in Cateura, your garden variety violin costs more than the average home. But that hasn’t stopped the town from assembling a youth chamber orchestra that performs music by Mozart, Beethoven and the Beatles. The instruments they play are made from the trash that surrounds them. Oil cans become cellos; aluminum bowls get forged into violins. And the music they make suffers not one bit. This inspirational story will be told in an upcoming feature-length documentary called Landfill Harmonic. You can keep an eye out for the film by following its Facebook page, and learn more about The Recycled Orchestra by reading this interview. H/T Kim
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That was truly remarkable and fashioning those bits of trash into musical instruments is amazing.
Some of the instruments, like the trumpet, looked like they weren’t made from recycled parts… And the bows / strings, were they recycled?
Heartwarming to think of the generosity of spirit, time and talent that made this opportunity for the young people who have responded so beautifully. They are now able to enrich the world with their music.