The BLUME Haiti Band Instrument Repair Seminars are Back!

It has been too dangerous to contemplate sending Herold Jean Pierre, the BLUME Haiti instrument repair technician and seminar leader, out on the road but...things are beginning to improve. We plan on restarting the Band Instrument Repair program this month!

Last year, 120 participants, representing 66 music schools from all across Haiti, learned the basics of wind instrument repair. Now, after almost a year of practice, they are more than ready to delve deeper into the subject!

Student at work on a clarinet in Jacmel

Ferree's Tools has very generously given us a significant price break on the cost of their Basic Repair Kit.

23 of these were shipped to Haiti last summer and are already in the hands of repair technicians at programs across the country. Now, we need to provide the same Basic Repair Kit to the other participating programs and, over time, as we raise the funds, we can make sure that all 66 music schools have a basic set of tools and supplies.

Basic Repair Kit from Ferree’s Tools

Here are some comments from participants in the first series of seminars:

"This will help me be assured of a better future tomorrow"

"It represents a future that I had not hoped for"

"The seminar will contribute to my economic life"

"The seminar gave me another family, another way to live"

"The seminar gave me a way to earn some money through music. It represents a new life for me."

"It is a new profession because, thanks to the seminar, I can assure that instruments will have a long life for the musicians where I live"

Soon, not only will young musicians will have instruments in their hands again, but, the economic impact for the newly minted repair technicians is significant! Already about 15 have set up their own shops serving their home music schools and their communities - wonderful!

Happy students after their seminar - BLUME Haiti’s Instrument Repair Technician, Herold Jean Pierre, is on the far right - a proud teacher!

Learning the skill of band instrument repair can provide hope for "a better future" for people living in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

Culture, the arts, and music can function as acts of resistance, instruments of hope.

Together, we can create positive change!