Landfill Harmonic

Music is a unifying force and can change lives.  Personally, music has taken me all over the world and created a career I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams.  The arts in America have been cut within an inch of its life making it nearly impossible to inspire any child with artistic or musical talent potential.

Cut to Cateura, Paraguay, where people are  living in the most unfavorable conditions.  Yet,  they never stop dreaming because of one man – Orchestra Founder,  Favio  Chavez , who persisted and inspired the kids of Cateura by simply saying,  “To have nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing”.

LANDFILL HARMONIC chronicles the incredible journey of Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra of Cateura.  Favio Chavez had hopes of sharing music with the children of Cateura, a poverty-stricken slum next to the capital’s largest landfill.  Since expensive musical instruments were not attainable for families, Favio, along with carpenter and trash picker Nicolas “Cola” Gomez, crafted instruments from landfill materials in order to provide children with the opportunity to play. None of them would’ve foreseen that this journey would exceed all expectations as they found themselves playing for audiences around the world, even accompanying artists such as Stevie Wonder, Metallica, Megadeth and Pope Francis.  

 

With the Grammys happening today, it’s important to be reminded of the healing power and togetherness that music can bring to the world during these most troubling political days.

Watching these kids take joy and pride in their instruments and performances warmed my heart and brought many a tear to my eye.  Two of the  young girls are actually paying their experience forward and teaching a whole new generation of kids in Cateura to  appreciate the arts.

As if they aren’t busy enough, The Recycled Orchestra has created the opportunity for a self-sustainable change in the lives of the children and families of Cateura.  However, this type of change takes time and support.  If after watching this amazingly emotional and inspiring film you feel the need to support their cause , please visit http://www.thelandfillharmonicmovie.com.

Landfill Harmonic can now be streamed online via Vimeo and it even has  a song in contention for Best Original Song “Cateura Vamos a Soñar (We Will Dream)” from “Landfill Harmonic”