A Pebble in Paraguay, Part 1
By Michelle Stebleton, Associate Professor of Horn, FSU
I have been fortunate to work in a field that I enjoy, and in which I can make a difference in people’s lives. As the horn teacher at Florida State University, many of my students engage in careers as band directors or music therapists, which means that they, in turn, affect lives. It is as if each pebble that I throw into the water ripples outward to touch the lives of many students and patients to follow.
Never did my work with students seem more important than the day that I reunited with a young man—a horn player—in Asunción, Paraguay. Eight years earlier, I had spent several weeks in residence, performing with the orchestra and giving lessons and clinics to students and military musicians in the area. Our group went twice to the Don Bosco Orphanage, where they had a music program for the children. Some students were residents in the school, and others, who otherwise might have been selling gum on the street, were day students.
During that trip, I worked with four horn players who had just started high school. One of the boys was particularly… not good. But he seemed attentive and interested. I asked him what he wanted to do for a career, and he replied, “I want to be in the orchestra!” Every negative thought I had rushed to my head, but instead I shared with him the basic skill set that he needed, and how to practice to attain that proficiency. I was quite serious and strict with him, stressing that he needed to work hard to realize his goals. His teacher from the symphony was there to help reinforce the concepts after I left. I knew that my role in the boy’s life was to give him hope and a focused goal, even if he would never make a career as a musician.
Eight years after that lesson, I was in Asunción again to perform a double concerto with the Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Asunción (OSCA) and a colleague from Penn State University. The conductor had suggested that we perform an additional piece for four horns and orchestra, combining with two members of his section. When I walked into the first rehearsal, a tall young man holding a horn asked me, “Do you remember me?” He continued, “You gave me lessons when you were here before. I remember them, and remember you. You inspired me.” Now the top Paraguayan horn player, Arturo Benitez teaches young musicians across the country, and is living a comfortable life that finally includes an apartment, a car, and, of course, food. He has not only overcome a life of poverty, he is also sharing his life’s passion with the local youth, who are now rising out of their own poverty as young musicians themselves, joining various orchestras in South America. Making a difference in Paraguay, it turns out, was a stone’s throw away!
The next article: the music program in Paraguay, and what it is doing for all the children—and their families—who participate.
