A 6-year-old from Tamaulipas is stealing the hearts of thousands in viral videos on social media that demonstrate the youngster’s talent for conducting an orchestra.
Dubbed “Alondrita de la Parra” by admirers after the famous Mexican director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Oxana Thaili Morales Esquivel has won over an adoring online following for conducting fellow students at a school orchestra in Ciudad Victoria.
She employs an energetic style to lead the musicians through typical northern Mexican tunes.
The girl’s passion has drawn praise from top film and music personalities, including actor Gael García Bernal and celebrated writer-composer for the Broadway hit Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Oxana’s music teacher, Abraham Gómez Quintana, told the newspaper El Universal that the children’s orchestra has a long history in the state capital and has inspired a love of music in several generations over the course of two decades.
Amo con locura todo lo que pasa en este video 💖 pic.twitter.com/RfeSZOSaK5
— Marbe (@Marbe) June 10, 2019
“When I arrived here 24 years ago, [my fellow teacher] Blanca Obregón Fuentes supported me. I gave music classes for four years, and then she suggested that we form an orchestra. This group was founded 20 years ago. She chose students that already had some familiarity with music.
“Since then, I have formed an orchestra every year, and I teach them while they pass on their passion to the rest [of the students].”
Gómez said Oxana was chosen to conduct the group after he observed the budding musicians’ behavior and abilities over the course of two months.
“She gets the rest of them moving. She shows them what I tell her to; she just waits for my instructions and then she communicates them. She’s very smart, she has natural talent.”
The music teacher explained that the orchestra is made up of 43 children who play wooden blocks, tambourines, rain sticks, drums and chimes. Most of the children are in either second or third grade, and two are in first.
The clear star of the ensemble said in the same interview that in addition to conducting, she also likes to drum and play the maracas and cymbals. She added that she has been playing music for two years.
When asked about her high-energy motions in front of the orchestra, she explained that they meant that “everyone has to do them.”
As a result of the video’s success, the state director of family development awarded Gómez a full scholarship to study a special degree program in choral music for young children.
Source: El Universal (sp)
