Photo: Roy Davis Alvarez | By Kathleen Toner, CNN | Every Saturday, at a church in Gothenburg, Sweden, hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds gather. There are more than 20 languages spoken among them, and they come not to worship, but to play music.
As they chat and tune their instruments, a smiling man sweeps in and the energy level rises. He greets everyone, steps onto the podium, and raises his baton. On his command, music fills the room.
It’s an ensemble known as the Dream Orchestra – the vision of Ron Davis Alvarez, an accomplished violinist, conductor, and teacher. Since 2016, his free program has given hundreds of refugees, immigrants, vulnerable young people, and native Swedes the chance to learn an instrument, connect with others, and enrich their lives.
To Alvarez, 38, the work is about far more than music.
“An orchestra, it’s like a community – different people, different voices, different melodies. Everybody (has) their own role and they all connect to each other,” he said. “Imagine if the world worked more like an orchestra. We would have a better world for sure.”
New life through music
Alvarez grew up in the favelas of Caracas, Venezuela – dangerous slums plagued by drugs and violence. To help his family make ends meet, in grade school he started selling ice cream alongside his grandmother at her home. Across the street was a chapter of El Sistema, a globally acclaimed program that provides free classical music training to children from under-resourced communities. Seeing students carrying their instruments interested him; then, he heard the music.
“You always (could) hear one of the students playing the violin (from) the balcony,” he said. “I said, ‘I want to play that. … That instrument has a voice.’”
At 10, he joined the group, and the experience changed his life.
“I fell in love with music from my first class,” he said. “For me, to play the violin – it’s electricity.”
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“Some of the kids, I know that they don’t understand what I say. But they do understand what I show,” he said. “It’s an orchestra where the main language is music.”
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/world/his-love-of-music-is-helping-refugees-and-immigrants-build-new-lives/index.html
Photo: Roy Davis Alvarez | https://dreamorchestra.se/team/ron-davis-alvarez/