The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, also known as the Recycled Orchestra, is an orchestra formed in 2012 and composed of children from Paraguay in South America who play musical instruments made from scrap materials collected from the Cateura landfill. Cateura is located just outside the Paraguayan capital city, Asunción, and is home to 40,000 people living in a desperately poor neighbourhood. It is built on top of a landfill site which receives more than 1,500 tonnes of waste each day.
The orchestra originated in the “Sonidos de la Tierra” (Sounds of the Earth) program which was created and directed by Luis Szarán and coordinator Favio Chávez. Chávez was an ecological technician who began using the rubbish in the landfill to create instruments for the children in nearby neighbourhoods.
Today’s clip is of the orchestra playing their arrangement of Libertango, a composition by composer Astor Piazzolla. The tango is the national music (and dance) style of Argentina.
Listen to more music in the tango style here and here.
Hayes Music blog 