“We are going to change the world with music,” states one of Venezuelan Ron Davis Alvarez’s music students. Alvarez is a 2024 Top Five CNN Hero; he pieced together his free Dream Orchestra to give refugees, immigrants, and native Swedes an opportunity to learn an instrument. Beginning with 13 students, he characterizes his Dream Orchestra as music “family” with 405 current participants who speak 25 different languages in Gothenburg, Sweden. The 3-56 age-range participants rely on music as their common language. Alvarez’ dream is for Dream Orchestra to help people translate traumas through finding joy and compassionate connections in life.
Native author Louise Erdrich captures the essence of both day/nighttime dreams: “What are dreams but an internal wilderness and what is desire but a wildness of the soul?” Alvarez could agree; he compares playing his violin to electricity. Music and art are energetic change agents; they can electrify both artists and their audiences.
Dreamer Alvarez grew up in a Caracas slum where drugs and violence were commonplace. His family moved frequently. His grandmother’s house was across the street from El Sistema, a free classical music training program for low-income communities. The young Alvarez heard wafting music from musicians practicing. He loved the sounds and learned to play violin at age 10; his zest for music led him to become a teacher at 14 and a conductor by age 16. He started Greenland’s first youth orchestra before settling in Sweden. Part of his Dream Orchestra is composed of refugee teenagers from Syria and Afghanistan who came to Sweden alone.
Every Saturday his fledgling musicians gather in a church to make electricity. Alvarez defines music education: “It’s about giving you new opportunities [for] learning about life, about challenges, about dreaming, about…connecting you to your soul.”
Conductor Alvarez bridges different cultures by having students learn a wide range of works from around the world, including many from their diverse homelands. He also teaches Swedish compositions, so students learn about their newfound home. Alvarez and some members of his orchestra help with housing, food, and connection to outside resources and support. This outgrowth from the music comes from the friendships formed. The Alvarez connection with his musicians runs deep: “When someone comes and says, ‘I have this problem,’ then we all have the problem.”
Hansson-Khorsand says he could not have adjusted to life in Sweden without the financial and emotional support he received from Dream Orchestra. Now married and a father to a young son, he has a job helping refugees find work. Alvarez is mentoring him in preparation for studying music at college.
Alvarez’ new dream is finding others to replicate his work. He has supported programs at refugee camps in the West Bank and Greece. Korean artist Yeesookyung also celebrates the beauty of imperfection and “second chances.” Connecting broken shards of pottery delivers a changed vessel.
Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz
349. When has music helped you cope?
350. In what way has music changed you?
Pearls of Peace: A Family Psychologist’s Circle-of-Life Blog 