Context:

The Santa Cecilia Music School was opened in 2011, in one of the shantytowns near Oaxaca City: the initiative came from the children themselves with the support of the Catholic parish and of the community at large. Camerino Lopèz Manzano, a clarinettist from the Oaxaca Conservatory of Music, took charge. Twenty-five children became passionate about music – and vowed never to return to the streets, a life of gangs and drugs. Seven years on, the school has 130 students who have formed three instrumental ensembles, one of them a symphony orchestra, which played last year in Mexico City. 

Camerino is the musician who founded the school

A music ensemble that has changed their lives !

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Location:

The site is south-west of Oaxaca City, a region frequented by tourists. In the shantytown of Vicente Guerrero, at the foot of the giant municipal rubbish tip, that some 14,000 indigenous people live without running water and often without electricity, in tiny shacks of corrugated iron.

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Objectives:

Don du Choeur’s objective is to build music rooms that would allow the youngsters of the shantytown to practise individually and rehearse together in good conditions, allowing twice as many students to take courses. Today there is a crying lack of space, forcing them to play in the school’s one room or outside in an open courtyard. 

Open-air rehearsal at Santa Cecilia

Jesús finds a quiet place to practise his cello (copyright Andréa Mantovani)

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Key Stages:

From 2011: Isabelle de Boves, a French airline pilot, starts collecting used musical instruments which she takes to Oaxaca. She sets up the association La Banda de Musica to help in the development of the school. 

2014 to 2016: Some lock-ups are built to stock the instruments. Two repair workshops (for wind and string instruments) are opened to the public, becoming a source of revenue for the school. 

2017: The community acquires some more land, to allow the school to expand. 

2018: The Don du Choeur committee visits Oaxaca to assess the enlargement project.

2019, 9 May: Don du Choeur fundraising concert at Victoria Hall, Geneva

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Partners:

• Axel Arañó, renowned Mexican architect, will donate his services to the school enlargement project.
• The French association La Banda de Musica, which has been a partner of Santa Cecilia since 2011.
• The Fondation Air France is helping to finance the land and a part of the school enlargement costs.

Isabelle de Boves, airline pilot, has brought in almost 300 instruments

Two youngsters from Santa Cecilia (in purple shirts) were invited to Tokyo to play in the Fukushima symphony orchestra

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Help us help these children! :

For these kids, music is a source of pride and achievement!

Music has brought life, joy and hope to the children of the shantytown

When music saves children

Mayo, one of the young cello players of Santa Cecilia !