TOURNEEPROJEKT 2007

Sonidos de la Tierra 2007; Youth Orchestra Tour Project (D, CH, F)
Ulla Benz was the artistic director of the orchestra tour project Sonidos de la Tierra ('worldwide sounds'). This unique international youth orchestra tour project was initiated by Maestro Luis Szaran (principal conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra Asunción, Paraguay), Peter Balleis SJ (formerly a Jesuit mission-procurator, Nuremberg), and Ulla Benz (Violin lecturer, Munich). It is based on Luis Szaran’s national music project
Sonidos de la Tierra that he initiated in Paraguay in 2002. This music project gives new perspectives and a new outlook on life to children and youths who grew up in villages and slums in Paraguay. Ulla Benz is violin lecturer for the project in Paraguay and artistic director for the youth orchestra tour project in Europe. The tour in 2007 led the orchestra through Germany, France, and Switzerland.

Ulla Benz brought pupils of hers from Paraguay, from the Gandhi-Ashram-School in Kalimpong in India, from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Jerusalem, from the Palestine National Youth Orchestra, and from Germany together. The project succeeded in reaching its goals by enabling encounters between youths from conflict areas and youths from Europe, to let them practice and perform together.