MORE ABOUT US:
Our Mission: The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra Project’s mission is to educate and promote the Puerto Rican culture using the national instrument, the cuatro, as the main tool. It is our purpose to teach and refine new generations of “cuatristas” (cuatro musicians) so they become the future leaders, instructors, composers, and conductors of the orchestra.
Our Mission: The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra Project’s mission is to educate and promote the Puerto Rican culture using the national instrument, the cuatro, as the main tool. It is our purpose to teach and refine new generations of “cuatristas” (cuatro musicians) so they become the future leaders, instructors, composers, and conductors of the orchestra.
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The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra Project aims to enrich lives through the instruction and performance of Puerto Rico’s national stringed instrument, the Cuatro, and educating the community at large of the influence of the Cuatro on Puerto Rico’s rich cultural heritage. We fulfill our mission through our free music education classes, public performances, and community outreach.
We host public musical performances that blend entertainment and cultural education to reengage Puerto Ricans in their heritage and expose others to a new cultural legacy. We aim to build generations of students that follow our tiered progression with each tier learning more complex skills and musical arrangements by the completion of that level. Our programming is intended to embed life skills such as discipline, service above self, dedication, aspiration, respect, and integrity through a peer-to-peer student model that allows students a way to grow within the leadership of the organization. Our aim is to use our holistic music education programs to transform the lives of our students and positively impact our community. |
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The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra was founded by Orlando and David Rivera, two professional music teachers from Chicago, and has performed in many important cultural venues. Among others, the Orchestra has performed at The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Center, The Auditorium Theatre, The Great Chicago Theater, and at The Millennium Park Harris Theatre.
The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra is proud to celebrate its 25th Anniversary in 2021 and continues to focus its efforts on the city’s youth through continued partnerships with community organizations and with Chicago Public Schools. It has as a goal to seek out other opportunities to engage diverse communities for collaboration.
The concept for creating an orchestra and an educational program dedicated to the Puerto Rican cuatro began in 1996 when brothers, professional musicians and CPS teachers, David and Orlando Rivera began to offer free cuatro and Spanish guitar classes to Humboldt Park community children. Since then, the Rivera brothers have helped to educate over 2,000 students.
In September 2011, the Chicago Cuatro Orchestra Project (CCOP) was created as a non-profit organization to formally organize the program. The CCOP received determination as an IRS 501(c)3 organization in January 2012.
The CCOP provides free music instruction to children and adults through several programs: Beginners and Intermediate classes, the Preparatory Cuatro Orchestra, and the advanced Chicago Cuatro Orchestra. The programs consist of weekly music instruction, development of live performance skills, and opportunities to acquire studio recording experience. The more accomplished students also develop their skills as the next generation of instructors as they mentor other students.
The CCOP reaches out to the community by conducting educational workshops, seminars, and live music performances with an impact to over 6,000 guests each year.
Our holistic music programs transform the lives of our students and positively impacts our community.
The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra is proud to celebrate its 25th Anniversary in 2021 and continues to focus its efforts on the city’s youth through continued partnerships with community organizations and with Chicago Public Schools. It has as a goal to seek out other opportunities to engage diverse communities for collaboration.
The concept for creating an orchestra and an educational program dedicated to the Puerto Rican cuatro began in 1996 when brothers, professional musicians and CPS teachers, David and Orlando Rivera began to offer free cuatro and Spanish guitar classes to Humboldt Park community children. Since then, the Rivera brothers have helped to educate over 2,000 students.
In September 2011, the Chicago Cuatro Orchestra Project (CCOP) was created as a non-profit organization to formally organize the program. The CCOP received determination as an IRS 501(c)3 organization in January 2012.
The CCOP provides free music instruction to children and adults through several programs: Beginners and Intermediate classes, the Preparatory Cuatro Orchestra, and the advanced Chicago Cuatro Orchestra. The programs consist of weekly music instruction, development of live performance skills, and opportunities to acquire studio recording experience. The more accomplished students also develop their skills as the next generation of instructors as they mentor other students.
The CCOP reaches out to the community by conducting educational workshops, seminars, and live music performances with an impact to over 6,000 guests each year.
Our holistic music programs transform the lives of our students and positively impacts our community.
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In the present, the Chicago Cuatro Orchestra is offering free Cuatro , Spanish guitar, Latin Percussion and Tiple classes to the inner city communities in the entire Chicago land area. Our program is free to the public, and for people of all ages. Currently, the ages of our students and Orchestra members range from 6 years to 60 years old. Our program is very diverse as well, as students and members come from different ethnic backgrounds. Click here for more info.
Our programming focuses on delivering free beginning, intermediate, preparatory, and advanced level Cuatro courses. We recently expanded our music instruction to include other culturally significant instruments like the Puerto Rican Tiple and Latin Percussion, thus creating a sustainable pipeline to our Preparatory Orchestra and advanced Chicago Cuatro Orchestra.
We deliver our programs to students aged 6-60+ from our community including youth classes in Chicago Public Elementary Schools, all-ages intergenerational community classes in cultural centers, and seniors’ classes in community centers. Classes typically run 30 weeks for 1 hour. Students are expected to practice on their own for 2-5 hours each week. During the pandemic, we have pivoted to deliver mixed virtual classes using a model of 2-3 prerecorded classes followed by a live-streamed assessment/coaching class. Our music education programs are based on a tiered curriculum created by the organization’s founders, two CPS music teachers with over 50 years of combined experience with additional contributions from one of our Directors, another CPS music teacher with numerous national awards. We typically perform at over 20 events each year in our own productions, in partnerships with other Chicago cultural organizations, and in cultural exchanges with musical organizations from Puerto Rico. We use these performances to enhance our student’s live performance skills, provide community education and outreach, and promote our programs. |
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The future plans are to duplicate the Cuatro program in different cities of the U. S. A., and to create a national Cuatro program network. With this network in place, The Chicago Cuatro Orchestras’ qualified staff will train music teachers, and will expand the program all over United States, creating one day, The U. S. National Puerto Rican Cuatro Orchestra and Festival.
Orlando Rivera is features on CBS Channel 2 News segment of 'Someone You Should Know'.