I am volunteering 1-2 hours every week of my time to raise awareness and money for a Brazilian organization, Orquestra Criança Cidadã (Child Citizen Orchestra). I also spend 1-2 weeks a year with them. For the rest of the year I connect with them every week on Friday. I teach music and English to the children at "OCC". I also plan to start a program to involve my friends in helping me. I plan to match children in Brazil with kids playing same instruments in US schools. Music is a great connector and I hope to bring more people closer across the world.
My involvement started in December of 2016, when I attended a concert at a church in NYC by children belonging to OCC. These were some of the poorest kids from the poorest and most violent slums (Favelas) in Brazil. Orquestra Crianca Cidada is a 12 year old organization involved in helping underprivileged children in the poorest of poor neighborhood learn music as an escape from their desolate condition. Children from such communities end up as violent criminals in Brazil. Around 350 children between ages of 6 and 21 are in OCC. The best musicians in the group get to travel and perform all over the world including for Pope Francis at the Vatican and at the UN. See some of their performances on my other website. One day I want to start a similar program Music 4 life which can be done worldwide including India and Africa.
Teaching Bass in a Favela in Recife, Brazil
