An Argentine orchestra surprises in Paris, in an emotional tribute to El Impenetrable del Chaco, its inhabitants and its rural pediatricians

El Impenetrable in Chaco, its inhabitants and its rural pediatricians they were honored in Paris during a moving concert by Lutezia Orchestra AND Maestro Alejandro SandlerIn the Home of Latin America in the French capital. At least 170 Argentines and French gathered in the amphitheater, to get to know some and frantically applaud others, the works of Piazzolla, Ginastera, the orchestration of Giusto and recognize the problem, played by a Frenchwoman, and the bandonéon.

A solidarity born in the midst of Covid, in isolation, when digital connectivity united the Argentines of Paris with their friends in Montreal to start thinking about founding Propertya French NGO but made up of Argentine professionals to help their country.

Argentine roots

The entrepreneur María Rosa Kemlin, the anthropologist and journalist, former correspondent of the Atlántida publishing house in Paris, Enriqueta Sugasti, the psychologist Edgardo Paz, Belén Santamarina, former founder of Carnar, and Martin Tavaut carried out this project, which they called Raíces .

The godfather was the doctor Juan Carlos Chaques, the inventor of the cardiac Etcharpe, director of the Cardiac Biocare program at the Pompidou Hospital and of the ethics committee for scientific research. A resident of Santa Fe, exiled by the dictatorship, who connected them to a Santa Fé NGO. It’s called La Higuera, formed by a group of pediatricians, who They have been working on Impenetrable for 20 years and they even created a chair of Rural Paediatrics at the University of Rosario. The partnership with local NGOs is the Raíces method.

The other sponsor is Dr. Fernando Alvárez, professor of pediatrics and director of the Liver Transplant Program and co-director of the Intercultural Pediatrics Program, CHU Sainte Justine in Montreal, Canada.

Property grows and consolidates with everyone’s help. In 2022 they were able to purchase a generator, which allowed the Impenetrable team of doctors to work in communities without electricity. In 2023 they managed to purchase a portable ultrasound machine, essential for establishing diagnoses in the field, which costs from 12 to 14,000 euros, but they help with logistics by purchasing fuel, transporting and housing volunteers in the field or procuring portable dental units.

Lutetia, a humanitarian orchestra

The French at the concert They had never heard of Chaco or El Impenetrable. But they were there, to help and listen to the Lutetia Orchestra, with a long humanitarian history.

“In addition to being a professional orchestra, the Lutetia Orchestra, we have always allowed ourselves, from the beginning, to have one, twothree concerts a year for humanitarian purposes. As a musician, I am very grateful to Argentina. I was in Rosario, in the Rosario Orchestra, then in the Colón Theater Orchestra and then I received a scholarship from the Mozarteum, to come to Europe. Really with a lot of effort, obviously, what this kind of thing entails. I always got help getting back here. So it’s my way of helping. I always had the vision of giving back the artistic part,” he said Clarion Maestro Alejandro Sandler, director of the Lutetia Orchestra.

“About 20 years ago I went to Congo, for a humanitarian cause, to go there directly. I started helping Congo with my orchestra. We sent not only musical instruments, but paper, pencils, string, piston oil of the tools. “Everything was missing,” she said.

Congo inspired the Master to help his country.

“I contacted a person in Argentina and said: “What is needed there? “Can I do something for my country?”

And he adds: “We have been in Argentina for about 15 years. I am ambassador of the Alegro Argentina Association orchestra, directed by Derna Isla. Musical ambassador means that everything we can here, we do for them in Argentina. And We sent more than 200 instruments. At each Lutetia concert an instrument is purchased and shipped. Whenever I am there, I will visit them, direct them. Now I was directing in Argentina, May last year. And obviously, we organize educational concerts, so that they can come . We again made a donation of three instruments sent by the Lutetia Orchestra. So not only with Argentina, but we also did the same in Mexico.”

“In Spain, also in France. There is always a need. We want art and culture to enrich us in some sense. As they said in Argentina, with the first tool we sent: “A tool sent, a street kid saved.” This was the motto. And I think that’s strongly the case and may even be more important,” Sandler said Clarion.

“I have always been very grateful to my country, because I am still Argentine, even though I have lived here for 20 years. It’s a clean and clear thank you, without return. Without going into the political part. In the truly humanitarian, spiritual part, perhaps”, recognizes the Master.

The amphitheater of the Maison de América Latina, obtained free of charge from Professor Carlos Quenan, It was complete. “Sold, yes. This says a lot about many things. First of all, people responded to the Lutetia Orchestra’s appeal. It also has its audience, which has been very interested in the project and, above all, people will certainly be very generous. With this Everything collected tonight can be sent to the Impenetrable Chaco, for the association there. “To be able to purchase medical supplies, so that they can equip their trucks, their cars and so that they can have access to those places. Provide the necessary material, the necessary technology, at least participate in the purchase of the necessary tools for doctors,” he acknowledged.

The teacher in The Impenetrable

The Master was in The Impenetrable. He’s been through it. He saw that «there are dead, including children due to cholera, dengue, fevers, influenza, who often do not have access to medicines. Music has no boundaries. Simply for us to do a concert, if that helps you, We are very happy. The Lutetia Orchestra is a professional orchestra. We live off music and in this concert the musicians agree to work for charity. Of course, if the causes don’t get their attention, they can say no or they get busy. But the very nice thing about this project is that the people we invited immediately responded with great enthusiasm, in a positive way,” she acknowledged.

Impressions from Ginastera’s Puna, Di Giusto’s Argentine string music, Cumbo’s Suite for quena and string orchestra, Pinttando el Alma, La Vuelta de los Tachos, Piazzolla’s Years of Solitude, Oblivion and Violentango They were part of the program.

in the orchestra there are many French musicians, an American who plays the violin, and the Argentine tango double bass player Lucas Querini, who played Piazzolla with the orchestra. There was Carmela Delgado, one of the best young bandeon players in Europe. And the flutist Naié Dutrieux, who today walks the streets of Buenos Aires for the first time, after her teacher convinced her to learn the quena. She was one of the great sensations of the concert.

The repertoire was purely Latin American and Argentine music. Alberto Ginastera, father of the Argentine composer; Jorge Cumbo, who is a well-known folklorist, who was the quenista of Simon and Garfunkel, when they did the passages of El condor. And the work is also orchestrated by the Argentine Gerardo Di Giusto

At the end of the concert the audience He didn’t just ask for an “encore”, but two, surprising the director himself, who hadn’t foreseen it and had to repeat Piazzola’s last piece. And they enthusiastically donated to Chaco Impenetrable’s cause.