Soul music

Zhang is greatly touched by the wholehearted enthusiasm and concentration of these disadvantaged children and like all the volunteer teachers for the project, mostly schoolmates of Chen, he turns down private paying students and commutes hours to teach in both schools.

"The children here are as bright as their peers. They just cannot afford the expense of a professional tutor," says Wang Chen, tutor for chorus in Lubo and a mother of a 6-month baby.

Wang points out that the music lessons transform the children, changing them from silent to lively and outgoing. She is particularly touched that some of the children choose to share their happiness and unhappiness at home and in the school with her.

However, it was a bumpy start for the project. After their initial excitement, a few of orchestra members in Dandelion grew tired of the repetitive practice and gave up.

However, after one week, they returned. "I feel like a traitor to my orchestra," said one of the letters of apology. "Wandering around with pals and playing in an Internet bar doesn't appeal to me anymore. I'm eager to return and promise not to abandon music again."

Despite the children's persistence and the tutor's dedication, there are also other obstacles.

For the schools, the understanding and support of parents are essential but not easy to obtain.

Lubo signs tripartite agreements with both parents and children, just in case there is any decline in the children's academic performance. Although results at Dandelion school revealed that all top three students in participating classes were orchestra members.

Another setback was that none of the approved parents in Lubo accepted the invitation for the anniversary performance. Some were irritated by the later pick-up time and requested withdrawal.

"About 70 percent of parents here have education no higher than junior high school," says Shen Haijian, director of teaching with Lubo. "They put their hopes on their children and to some extent see music training as a waste of time."

The children's mobility is another problem. One fourth of the recruits in Dandelion have had to quit.

The capital's permanent residence system reportedly affects over 400,000 children aged 6 to 18 with migrant-worker parents in the city. Since the children are not eligible to take university entrance exams in Beijing, some parents let their children return to their hometown after graduation from junior high school or even earlier.

"Mobility was also an issue for the Bolivar Orchestra in its initial stages," says Chen. "Learning music is as big a struggle as poverty for them. But to play and fight - that's what they can take from the learning experience," she adds.

The charity project is also planning to recruit more music teachers to benefit other needy children in the near future.