“Talent, fellowship, academic studies ….”
“With MelB, I have learned to search for things that are not in our hands. I have learned that one can make much of a little. That society develops positively when we begin with the children. That we reach the parents through their children. I have learned that music also means discipline: a discipline that can be fun and pleasant.”
Reyna Somarriba’s path of life was particularly marked by Música en los Barrios. In the flute classes her musical talent was discovered and promoted. Today she is studying choral conducting in Costa Rica.
It all began at the tender age of four in the Centro Cultural in the Barrio Batahola Norte, Managua, when Reyna first listened to the sound of recorders and choral singing. However, she had to wait until she reached age seven to join the choir and to take her first flute classes. Padre Angel Torrellas taught her musical basic knowledge, a year later she already received a full scholarship for violin and piano lessons. With just eleven years of age, she began to teach children in the districts their first flute tones. Her first lesson inspired and fascinated her. “It impresses me every time to see how the children develop and grow in the challenge that the music brings with it. Teaching has encircled me magically. These are the reasons why I still enjoy working at MelB today,”she says. The enthusiasm for music, her talent, and not least the great discipline brought her to the place where she now stands: in the middle of her music studies in Costa Rica, after graduation with distinction, after several years working as director of MelB – currently as musical director of the Project, – many concerts, several conducted choirs in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, successful recordings and tours. After completing her studies, Reyna would like to return to Música en los Barrios. And this with many plans in her mind, such as chamber music with recorders, the establishment of a children’s choir and conducting courses.
Also Karla Dominguez launched a top career as a child at Música en los Barrios. At the age of ten she received her first music lesson at Barrio Batahola Sur. Only three years later, 1994, she was a “profesorita” (small teacher) in front of 20 satisfied students. A few years later she reflected: “Every weekend, whether in schools, churches or in the backyard of a dwelling-house, the often sad reality of the children is quickly forgotten. They dive into a world full of singing, playing, flutes, inventing rhythms and sounds, learning, and laughing. ”
Now she has taken a big step: Since 2007 Karla studies musical education with the recorder in Cologne, Germany. Although she enjoys now a solid academic foundation, she emphasizes the great importance of her first teacher training at Música en los Barrios. To MelB, to which she also feels connected despite this distance, she soon wants to return not only once a year, but forever to be able to offer flute classes with new teaching techniques and methods. Because “a society can develop not only technically and economically, but also in the cultural sense. And that’s why MelB is more important than ever!”