Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, Paraguay, will perform a free concert on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 6 p.m. in the Queensbury High School Auditorium as part of their United States tour.
The orchestra was profiled in the award winning 2016 documentary The Landfill Harmonic.
It tells the origin story of youths and families in an impoverished town who, under the guidance of now-director Favio Chavez, wound up forming an orchestra of instruments crafted from materials found in the local landfill.
Mr. Chavez is quoted, “The world sends us trash and we send back music.”
Queensbury Middle School teacher Amanda Breheny and her 8th grade Spanish students organized this event.
Mrs. Breheny tells The Chronicle they watched the documentary in their English classes last year, and with her 7th and 8th grade Spanish classes, “We reached out to Favio Chavez…to see if we could do a Google meet with his orchestra.
“He mentioned that they would be coming to Manhattan for the release of a new children’s story about their Orchestra, called Building an Orchestra of Hope, by Carmen Oliver.
“We invited them to Queensbury and they said YES!”
Orchestra members will stay with host families in Queensbury.
Members will atttend Queensbury Elementary’s Fun Fair on Saturday, Sept. 30, to sign pre-purchased books and display their hand-made instruments.
Mrs. Breheny’s students created welcome videos in Spanish, as well as bilingual advertisements to post in school.
Eighth grade Spanish students are reading Ada’s Violin and Building an Orchestra of Hope to elementary students.
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