Venezuela set the Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest orchestra on Saturday after hundreds of local musicians played Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March. The musicians were brought together by Venezuela’s nationally financed “El Sistema” program, which was started in 1975 and has since taught classical music to thousands of working-class children. One of its most renowned alumni is Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Paris Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “I can affirm that this effort was successful, congratulations,” an official in charge of delivering the judgment said on a screen at a ceremony at El Sistema headquarters. “You are officially incredible.”
On November 13, about 12 000 musicians from the country’s premier orchestra, the Simon Bolivar, comprising both youngsters and adults, performed for the record. According to a certificate supplied by the organization, Guinness World Records recognized just 8 573 of them as having established the record. Around 260 auditors from the accounting company KPMG were on hand to ensure each musician followed the conditions for setting a new record, which included not sharing instruments and performing for at least five minutes throughout the score. The broadcast contained a tape of Guinness World Records expert Susana Reyes declaring that the Venezuelan musicians had established a new record after playing Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s LaMarche Slave for more than five minutes.
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During the broadcast, President Nicolas Maduro displayed a Guinness World Records certificate recognizing that “El Sistema” had broken the record with 8,573 players in the orchestra. The previous record was held by an orchestra of 8,097 musicians in St. Petersburg, Russia. Conditions necessitate musicians performing at the same time, without anyone shifting in and out or lending their instruments to other performers. Guinness did not reply to demands for comment right away. “El Sistema” has 350,000 children and teenagers in its ranks, who perform in a network of 180 orchestras.
