Baixada Fluminense Composers' Movement Association
AMC Music School
Surprise
A group of our students went to Cacilda Becker Theater to see a ballet. After having to face a big tropical storm, an enormous heat and everybody afraid of getting flooded, we arrived at the theater soaking wet. We were then told that the theater was flooded and there would not be a ballet that day. What to do with the kids?!?!? We went to a beautiful bookstore! Some of the people inside got afraid. They looked at the kids suspiciously and started looking at them and whispering. Some left the library. They missed the show!! Soon the kids started discovering titles in wonder. It was a big fuss finding out Tom Jobim, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Pedro Bandeira, Drummond... The kids showing each other the beauty of the books, happy with their intimacy with the authors. They exchanged information, sang music scores, showed their acquaintance with old photos... Very moving! And everybody wanted to know where those kids came from!
Supernatural
We received a call from a well known newspaper journalist for a phone interview. Talking about our work, our school principal mentioned some of our great masters already deceased: Pixinguinha, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho, Ataulfo Alves. The journalist then wanted to know how often they used to go to AMC Music School to play with the students!
Prejudice?!? Does it Exist
We received a donation to buy instruments and decided to take some of the students along. We wanted to share our happiness for the donation with the kids and show them the enchantment of a musical instrument store.
1st store: the salesman told us he couldn’t take the instruments out of the showcase and that the instruments we were choosing were not the less expensive ones and there was no point in showing them... After some insistance he brought us a guitar and told us no one could touch it not to make it dirty. We looked at the instrument and asked how one could buy an instrument without trying it first. He took the guitar away and went to see someone else.
2nd store: one of the students asked the salesgirl to try a cavaquinho. The answer was that no one could try the instrument. We looked around and everybody else was trying the instrument they intended to buy. The prejudice was obvious! We demanded two guitars, two cavaquinhos and a tambourine. The kids started playing in the middle of the store and were applauded by everybody around. Of course we didn’t buy in that store either.
3rd store: we were very well received! All the kids tried their instruments and we got out with some good ones. A few days later our principal passed by the first store and the salesman ironnically asked what we had bought for the kids. As she still had the purchase receipt with her, she showed it to him.
The salesman exclaimed “with those kids... who could tell?!!!