The first Durán Chamber Orchestra seeks help from people and companies

Since 2010, the Duran Cultural and Heritage Management Network has been strengthening the mountainous and railway identity of Durán, a neighboring canton of Guayaquil, separated by the Guayas River. Its members started a project with which they want to strengthen a renewed cultural and montuvian identity of the people of Duran.

This idea was officially presented in 2011 with the support of the Municipality of Durán with Mayor Dalton Narváez. It started with the clothing phase, when the railway cotona was launched, an innovative shirt with which it is intended to give more identity to the inhabitants of that locality. “From there we have been executing other ideas, but since 2017 that cultural project entered into a development plan that now has seven macro-axes: cultural, education in values, wisdom, health and sports, resilience, security and work revitalization (entrepreneurship) . We point out that, as citizens, we must provide inputs to the Municipality so that it can do its job better together with the citizens”, explains Jorge Loaisa, president of the Duran Network of Cultural Management.

Part of this project is the creation of an orchestra and a choir. “From there the Duraneña Montubia and Railway Chamber Orchestra was born. It all started when in 2020 we were locked up due to the pandemic, but I saw the opportunity to take courses on-line. That is why I signed up for a violin one to take advantage of the time. We did not have in mind to execute the project because it was going to be done with money from a foundation that was left to help us, but due to COVID that help was delayed. So I talked to Pablo Montero Gutierrez musician who belonged to National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela and is currently part of the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra. We agreed on a modest payment, yes We do it for service not for profit. So we agreed monthly installments of $20 initially with ten to twelve participants. So I told him that I have friends in Durán and as president of the Network I sent letters to my acquaintances asking them to donate the violins to us. They sent me 20. Then, since I had taken two violin courses, I told Pablo ‘let’s go on an adventure’. So I made a change to the project and began to request musical instruments”, recalls Loaisa, who is also the administrative director of the Orchestra.

They currently have more than 30 members. “Those first violins were given by private people, including the mayor of Durán who donated two to us, some councillors, one, and so I added instruments. We give those violins to the boys on loan so that they can take it home, as if it were their own, but after six months they return it to give to someone else and so we help more. Our chamber orchestra also received support from Ceducar, a driving school”.

At the beginning the classes were 80% on-line and 20% face-to-face. Currently it is 50% for each case and other students are 100% face-to-face, according to the demand of interested parents. “The ages of the members fluctuate from 8 years old and up, but if there is someone who is 30 years old, there is no problem. if you want to learn. In the orchestra we have a 28-year-old and a 35-year-old, who are the oldest. All are from Durán, with the exception of two who are from Guayaquil, because the name of the musical group is Orquesta de Cámara Duraneña Montubia y Ferroviaria because its members wear the railway cotona”.

December 2021 was the expected day. The students showed what they had learned through virtual and face-to-face classes. “That year we had the debut. We did it with a Christmas concert. It was difficult to have reached those instances due to the confinement and the lack of resources. In the Network we offer modules of six months, they learn to read, they learn to dominate the instrument. Each course has a cost because they are for musical training, they are not one-week courses. We pay teachers. As president of the Network I do not earn a salary, I am a tax professor, I volunteer here. I have an assistant who is paid half a salary and the teachers earn a fair remuneration thanks to those monthly payments that the students pay, which is $30″.

Since then they have been working at “their pace” because they do not have enormous resources. “The Network is always managing or seeking resources from friends or companies like Sai Baba, who donated three cellos to us, among others. But we practically financed ourselves with the courses. Our hardest part to solve is paying teachers because if we don’t have good teachers it’s not worth doing this work. Pablo Montero is the conductor of the orchestra, a professional with several years of career in music”.

There are seven teachers who train music students. “Many are part of other orchestras, as is the case of Óscar Chirinos, cellist of the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra; there is also Joao Vera, double bass teacher, among others”.

Now the most difficult thing has been the peaks of the pandemic and getting musical instruments. “Parents were scared. At the end of 2020 there was like a regrowth and we returned to the courses on-line, so we could not advance in face-to-face classes. That put us behind at the practice level. On the other hand, it has also been difficult to get the instruments. We obtained the violins with no problems because their price is around $80, while the violas are more expensive, they cost about $180 or $190 the cheapest, even so we managed to get about twelve; the cellos, $200, we got 8; the traverse flutes, $250, we got ten; I counterbalance them for more than a thousand dollars, but we have three.”

“Durán is not just shootings and deaths, it is also culture,” Loaisa points out. “What we need right now are resources to keep up with trials. I want to motivate the boys to enroll in the seven modules that we have planned. I have also talked with the UArtes so that the students there, if they want to become professional, can also enroll in the training courses. I would like some company or people to give scholarships to the boys so that they do not charge them. What parents pay does not justify all the services we provide to their children. We do not charge registration fees.

On Facebook they are like the Duran Network of Cultural Management, where they publish their activities. This year, based on planning, they will offer concerts. “We are rehearsing. We were going to present a concert in February for the Day of Love and Friendship, but due to this issue of the COVID variant it became a bit difficult to physically gather the members because we cannot do rehearsals by Zoom. So our first concert of 2022 we moved it to March to celebrate Women’s Day and then we will repeat it in some parts.

If you want to help the first Durán Chamber Orchestra, you can call 098-777-8375 (Jorge Loaisa) or visit the Durán Cultural Management Network in the Los Helechos cooperative, in the Ceducar driving school building, which is about 200 m from the Aerovía station in Durán (cdla. Abel Gilbert).