Inocente Carreño Margariteña (Glosa sinfónica) Efrain Oscher Concerto for double bass Mystery Work Leonard Bernstein West Side Story, symphonic dances Double BassEdicson Ruiz Director: JEAN-FRANÇOIS VERDIER SYMPHONICS ABOUT US For more than forty years, El Sistema has been training young people in music in Venezuela. These children and teenagers from the most disadvantaged backgrounds learn music but also to live together. Some are even entering the international scene, such as the prodigious double bass player Edicson Ruiz. Mid-1950s, Manhattan: rival Jets and Sharks gangs fight daily for control of their territory. If West Side Story replays Romeo and Juliet's drama, the work addresses a crucial question: what perspectives can a society give or refuse to give to its youth? Here is the challenge taken up a few decades later by the El Sistema programme, which trained thousands of young Venezuelans from disadvantaged backgrounds in music. This is the case of 21-year-old bassist Edicson Ruiz, the youngest artist recruited to date by the phalanx that makes any musician dream, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Duration: 1h40 with intermission