CENIBRA Institute promotes musical education
Teaching children to build and play their own instrument, as well as contributing to the youths’ moral and human development. These are some of the Luthier Project’s objectives.
Implemented in the municipality of Barão de Cocais, Minas Gerais, since April 2006, the project has welcomed low-income and socially vulnerable children and teens between 9 and 18 years of age. They are given training in the entire context related to music instrument construction and musical training, in addition to enhancing school performance and relying on the of pedagogues and social workers.
Participants manufacture violas from eucalyptus wood donated by CENIBRA Institute. The initiative is an excellent example of application of renewable forest resources in social development actions.
The Luthier project’s Viola Caipira Orchestra is composed of young luthiers and has already performed in several places in Minas Gerais, such as Belo Horizonte, Belo Oriente (at the CENIBRA factory), Nova Lima, and São Gonçalo do Rio Baixo.
Participants become apprentices in the art of luthiery (construction of stringed musical instruments that feature a sound box). The training program includes wood selection, cutting methods, techniques used in machines and tools, development of manual skills, concepts of physics, mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry, and the use of precision measuring instruments and safety equipment. Several youths who graduated from the Luthier Arts, Crafts & Citizenship program are now music teachers and luthiers.
The Project also relies on the partnership with the municipal istration and sponsorship by other companies as well.
