Bogota (AFP)

Musicians and singers give voice and instruments one last time. Venezuelans or Colombians, they play day in the streets and buses of Bogota, are deliverers or students. In the evening, regardless of their background, they are all concert players.

Oboes, violins, percussion ... the notes fly away and warm up the atmosphere of the rehearsal room. For some, playing with the recently formed Youth Symphony Orchestra is an opportunity to reconnect with the lost harmony by fleeing their country in crisis. For others, this is an opportunity to learn from more experienced musicians.

"We created this foundation to help musical training for young Venezuelan migrants and Colombian students who did not have a space to practice," said 29-year-old Eduardo Ortiz, president of the Colombia Foundation for Youth. musical integration.

This well-known Venezuelan violinist, deaf by birth, is leading this project to allow migrant musicians to practice their art in better conditions than on the sidewalks of the Colombian capital, and to integrate playing with their Colombian peers.

"The streets of Bogota are full of professional musicians from Venezuela, they are everywhere, it is their livelihood, they play in the street, we want to fight this vulnerability ... to give them a space to make music. ", he says.

The initiative, born September 17, has received donations from several local businesses. In a few days, the foundation managed to organize the first concert of this "integration orchestra" on Friday evening in the auditorium of Jorge Tadeo University, in central Bogota. She hopes to grow through other donations and government grants.

- Symphony Orchestra in Exile -

Jair Acosta is a Venezuelan percussionist. For 15 years, he traveled around the world with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, conducted by his compatriot Gustavo Dudamel. But for the past four years, he has had to make a living by running a small restaurant in Bogota.

The serious political and economic crisis that sank his country forced him to move to Colombia, as more than 1.4 million Venezuelans.

The memory of his last performance remains alive. It was in 2015 in New York (United States) for the Turangalîla-Symphony of the French composer Olivier Messiaen. "I cried during almost all the concert because I knew it was the last one with my orchestra," says the 33-year-old.

Before going back on stage in Bogota, he takes a big breath of air. "It's going to be very moving," he warns. "If we are all like during the rehearsal, very connected (...) it will be reflected in the concert (...) United, we can do great things."

Mobile phone placed on the desk, between the partitions, some called in video their relatives remained in Venezuela so that they can see them and listen to them.

- Music against xenophobia -

The majority of young Colombians in the orchestra are beginners. There, they benefit freely from the knowledge of 13 experienced Venezuelan teachers.

Sara Catarine is a soprano singer. With a career spanning three decades, she was not making enough money to feed and care for her son, who had leukemia. So she crossed the border almost three years ago, and got a job as a tutor in opera singing at the Central University of Bogotá.

"Seeing a person barely gaining something to eat once a day while playing or singing in the street is something unacceptable," says the 55-year-old woman, who watches over the 34 singers of the foundation.

At the end of Friday's moving concert, in front of about 200 people, some of them displayed the Venezuelan flag on the stage where the young talents had just arrived.

Eduardo Ortiz hopes that this project will go far beyond music to become an example of integration of various nationalities in order to fight against possible access to xenophobia.

"At first, it was a bit difficult," admits Colombian bassoonist Paula Gil, 20, remembering the first rehearsals with Venezuelan musicians. But now, she "likes the atmosphere they create (because) they are more disciplined, better level".

© 2019 AFP