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NEOJIBA joins forces with the Bob Cole Conservatory Orchestra

Four students, both new to the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music as well as the U.S., will be performing their first concert on campus this Thursday, free of charge.

The string players from Núcleos Estaduais de Orquestras Juvenis e Infantis da Bahia, ages 19 to 23, are taking up residency at Cal State Long Beach. In order to gain a North American educational experience, they will be attending classes, workshops, lessons and rehearsals in the BCCM this semester.

Now, members of the Youth Orchestra of Bahia will join forces with students of CSULB’s own BCCM string department. They will perform classic arrangements by composers Wolfgang Mozart, Franz Schubert and Dmitri Shostakovich.

NEOJIBA, whose name translates to English as State Nuclei of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Bahia, was created in 2007 as one of the priority programs of the Bahia state government in Brazil. Since its founding, it quickly became one of South America’s most acclaimed orchestras.

In Brazil, NEOJIBA was the first governmental program inspired by the Venezuelan program El Sistema, created in 1975. El Sistema is a publicly financed music education program in Venezuela, founded by Venezuelan educator, musician and activist José Antonio Abreu.

“I am a friend of Jose Abreu and know well the El Sistema orchestras, but the Youth Orchestra of Bahia is splendid,” said Domenico de Masi, a famous Italian sociologist who received the title of honorary citizen of the city of Rio de Janeiro in 2010.

Started by conductor and pianist Ricardo Castro in 2007, NEOJIBA now benefits over 4,600 children, adolescents and youth.

They perform regularly with prominent conductors and soloists like Jean Yves Thibaudet — a French pianist widely hailed as “one of the best pianists in the world”  who accompanied the Youth Orchestra of Bahia on its first U.S. tour in 2014.

On top of regularly touring Brazil, they have also taken stages in concert halls such as the Royal Festival Hall in London and Philharmonie in Berlin.

The the collaborative performance consisting of members from both the BCCM string department will begin at 8 p.m. in the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall on March 2.

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