Last Monday, October 6, took place in the University of Navarra Museum a meeting between students and members of the Orquesta Juvenil del SODRE of Uruguay. The quotation began after 11 a.m. and lasted one hour and average. Ariel Britos, in charge of conducting the ensemble, spoke about the history of the orchestra. Britos is also the founder of the Sistema de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles del Uruguay, and was trained in Venezuela with maestro José Antonio Abreu, whose method he applied when founding the Sistema. The musical ensemble conducted by Britos offered a concert in the Museum's auditorium.

The musicians performed "La Conga del Fuego" by Arturo Márquez to open the meeting with the students. At the beginning, Ariel Britos explained that the orchestra was born 18 years ago with a Social Action mission statement "which is based and strengthened by the fact that the orchestra is like a small society". He affirmed that they have "broken with the elitism of music" in Uruguay, making it possible for children and young people, regardless of their social class , to study music if they wish. For Britos, the orchestra's currency is meritocracy, which makes it possible for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to make a qualitative social leap.

The dream of this musical ensemble is that every child can have an instrument. "We fight against limits. Limits are a barrier that we have to overcome and go placing it higher and higher", said the director. Another point highlighted by Ariel Britos is that in the SODRE Youth Orchestra the interdependence of its members is basic. All the musicians are valuable, each member of the orchestra depends on the others and, in turn, all depend on each member in particular.

To explain the importance of this concept, he asked the orchestra to play the introduction of "La Conga del Fuego" again. He then had them play the piece without the string instruments or with just the percussion. Using this example as a metaphor, he claimed that"we cannot seek a better society if we do not know the problems" and that"our society will be better as long as each of its members is better". The idea behind project is that music financial aid not only to development professional but also to development staff of young people. Britos concluded that "in the orchestra not everything is music, but everything is learning".

One of the attendees asked for the testimony of one of the musicians and Mathías Pereyra, a violinist, briefly told his story. Fourteen or fifteen years ago, he said, a call was opened in public schools to join the orchestra. It was not necessary to have musical knowledge and each student was given an instrument, at loan, to get started. Today he is director of a children's orchestra and is professionally dedicated to music, not only in the Orquesta Juvenil del SODRE, but also in the Orquesta Metropolitana de Montevideo.

The orchestra is made up of 140 members, all of whom are paid a scholarship. Although there is no minimum age to join, there is a limit of 26 years of age to remain in the orchestra. The director estimated that 80% of the orchestra's musicians are professionally dedicated to music, although there are also those who combine their musical programs of study with university careers such as medicine or engineering.

The director also highlighted that most of the members of the SODRE Youth Orchestra are teachers: they teach music to children. Ariel Britos said that it takes courage to go on stage, but the courage needed to teach class in a poor neighborhood, sometimes under a tree, is much greater. "It is in adversity that we become great," he explained. Far from falling into pessimism, he insisted that"whoever has a knowledge can transmit it and has the obligation to do so" and he sentenced: "In the work with children and young people we are educating the governors of the future".