The Kinshasa Symphony

 

Since we were sent a link over a year ago to a "60 Minute" special on the Kinshasa Symphony, I have wanted desperately to see them perform. We tried for a long time to find them, without success. Then we heard of a benefit concert they were doing at the German Embassy, but we were out of town that day. Then there was a free concert advertised on their website, but it turned out to be one of those days when the daily security alert suggested that we stay home and especially away from crowds, so we passed again. I thought that we wouldn't be able to have that "bucket list" experience.

Then last week our PA couple went to several churches to meet with leaders as part of their Public Affairs assignment. One of them was the church were the symphony practices. It's located in the home of a man who left his work as a pilot and used a large compound he inherited as a church and a music school.  It's in a typical Congolese neighborhood with dirt roads and no electricity much of the time. We actually got lost in this neighborhood last week when all the major roads were blocked for a bike rally. This is a sample of the neighborhood where the symphony practices.

This might actually be the street where the symphony'practices.
It was hard to tell in the dark.  If not, it was one pretty much like it. 

Imagine this garden area over two block long in the middle of LA.
Kinshasa is a huge city, more than 2 1/2 times the size of  LA, not what you'd call a modern metropolis. 

During the day people crowd the streets going about daily life.

But inside these walls is a place to enjoy the joy, peace and freedom of music.

But it's not just the home of a symphony, it's a place for Congolese of all ages to learn the joy of playing music. There were musicians young and old all over the compound practicing.  All of the instruments are either donated and refurbished instruments or those that they had made from scratch themselves. Many are not to standard specification and are thinner or thicker, a bit longer or shorter than others. But they are treasured by the musicians.

They were able to talk to the pastor/maestro and he invited them to come to a rehearsal any Monday, Wednesday or Friday.  When they told us about it I was so excited and asked if they might fit it in this week.  They immediately made the arrangements to go for our last FHE.

We drove through Kinshasa, which is mostly unlighted at night in a caravan with four cars of expats.  It was so hard getting there that two of the cars couldn't follow us and eventually turned around and went out for ice cream instead.  But we were determined since it was our only chance to go.  After going down one of the paved streets full of crazy traffic, we turned down a dirt road into a darkened neighborhood, lit only by a few candles on the stands of vendors.
 We were met by one of the vocalists who showed us the way through the compound into a warehouse-type building where they had placed plastic 10 chairs for us right in front of the orchestra.

They treated us like honored guests and we watched an hour of  orchestra practice . Then they were joined by the symphonic choir for 30 minutes practice.  Their music completely blew us away.  It was just magnificent. The Congolese are so musical and when you added the finesse of good musical training, it was remarkable. At the end of the rehearsal the maestro explained that we were representatives of a church and they welcomed us with a "clap" of greeting from one Christian to another. We were then able to tell them about us.

 

Again the beauty and the indomitable spirit of these Congolese people was an inspiration to us. 

If anybody would  like to see something amazing go to Net Flix and watch the documentary

The Kinshasa Symphony!