Buenos Aires (AFP)

In October 2018, they gave their first concert in Buenos Aires.

After months of silence due to the pandemic, the Venezuelan musicians of the Latin Vox Machine orchestra are finally meeting around their new project.

This orchestra of 120 professional Venezuelan musicians exiled in Argentina rehearses "Le Petit Prince symphonique", a musical theater piece created during the long months of confinement.

It has already given rise to a recording released at the end of July.

"It was our job during the confinement and it was also a way to escape," told AFP the director of the orchestra, Enmanuel Gonzalez.

"We were only thinking about that. I can't wait to present it" in public, he adds.

Until the arrival of Covid-19, these musicians, professionals in their country, made their living by playing in the corridors of the metro of the Argentinian capital or by teaching music.

Many also work in other trades.

"We had this project in mind before the pandemic, but we could not carry it out because it takes a lot of time for the composition and the arrangements", explains Omar Zambrano, the executive director of the orchestra.

Venezuelan Omar Zambrano (left), founder of the LatinVox Machine orchestra, and singer Isa Ramos during a break during a rehearsal in Buenos Aires on July 25, 2021 ALEJANDRO PAGNI AFP

-Trauma of exile-

"We would hardly be able to do what we do without the trauma of exile and the pandemic (...) Transforming trauma into joy is an art", he adds.

Venezuela is the country with the highest number of internally displaced people in the world after Syria, some 5.6 million people since 2015, according to UN estimates.

Some 185,000 Venezuelan migrants reside in Argentina.

During the most difficult months of the pandemic, the musicians of Latin Vox Machine received help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Musicians from the Latin Vox Machine orchestra during a rehearsal in Buenos Aires on July 25, 2021 ALEJANDRO PAGNI AFP

They have also launched an online music school and solidarity between musicians has played out in full force.

For violinist Maria Andreyna Chavez, the orchestra has been a "blessing" in this particularly hard time and for nothing in the world would it give up on Sunday rehearsals.

-Go forward-

"After such a long period, getting along again ... Le Petit Prince symphonique was our chance. It gave us a lot: a goal, to continue, to move forward," she says.

"This dynamic of rehearsal, of pursuit of an artistic objective is a privilege that we cherish and share", adds Omar Zambrano, for whom "the rehearsals have more value than the concerts themselves, because it is the space in which the reunion occurs ".

Few of the Latin Vox Machine members knew each other in Venezuela.

But a majority were trained within "El Sistema", the National System of Youth Orchestras in Venezuela.

This famous popular education project in classical music, founded in 1975, notably formed Gustavo Dudamel, who in April was appointed musical director of the Paris Opera.

© 2021 AFP