Musical Prodigies

A few months ago I saw a segment on 60 Minutes describing this wonderful National Youth Orchestra in Venezuela. The orchestra, partially funded by the government, takes young kids—many of them from the barrios—and turns them into highly trained musical prodigies. The orchestra has been in high demand to play at some of the top music halls around the world.

The reason I bring this up is that it turns out the son of my adoptive family is also quite musically inclined. When I asked him about the above orchestra I believe he said he was in it for a while. He now plays at another music school.

I got to visit the school with the family Sunday to see him perform. I rarely listen to classical music and I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a performance, but this one was quite beautiful and soothing to the ears. The son played both the harp and I believe the cuatro, a classic Venezuelan instrument, at different times during the show.

This evening, much to my surprise, I found out he’s going to Canada for 15 days to go on tour with a musical group. That's saying a lot right there.