Two Young People Rehearsing a Different Future
Heidy and Bryan have never met, but their lives are connected by a shared thread: music. As alumni of Sinfonía por el Perú, both now use the tools they gained through art to drive change in their communities.
In Peru, a country where inequality often narrows the paths that young people walk, two stories - one from Pueblo Libre, the other from Rímac - show how music education can open doors to social transformation. Heidy and Bryan grew up in very different contexts. She is now a psychologist, he an accountant. Without ever having met, they share a common root: both are graduates of Sinfonía por el Perú, a training program that offered more than technical skills. It taught them structure, discipline, and purpose.
Music as a psychoemotional anchor: Heidy’s story
When Heidy Sánchez looks back over her teenage years, the most vivid memories are not those of homework or classroom life - they're of violin lessons. She recalls sheet music, rehearsals, and especially the nerves she felt at age 16 during an audition to move up a level in a youth orchestra - an audition she failed.
More than any success would have taught her, that event showed the power of emotional control. “I realized I was just doing my best, and nobody was judging me. I took that lesson with me to university and even into job interviews,” Heidy recalls from her modest home in Pueblo Libre, a middle-class district in Lima, Peru's capital.
That audition was held as part of Sinfonía por el Perú, a program founded by renowned Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez to foster social change through music. Now 22, Heidy is no longer part of the orchestra, but the experience helped shape her confidence, character, and professional path. It stayed with her, driving a desire to understand human behavior and emotional well-being that in turn led her to study psychology.
Over the past decade, scientific research has shown that music can boost emotional intelligence, academic performance, and social skills in children. It’s also a powerful way to lower stress and anxiety and to foster self-esteem and self-confidence.
Today, Heidy uses psychology for her work in market analysis, but music remains a core part of her life. She teaches piano, violin, ukulele, and provides early music education to children as young as three, both at an academy and in private lessons. She also plays in a Brazilian-inspired batucada ensemble, where she explores percussion and performance art in a more spontaneous, expressive way.
Bryan: the accountant who sang in Switzerland
At his accounting office, Bryan Godoy Espinoza plans his workday with the precision of a musical score. At 22, he juggles bank reconciliations and tax filings like any young professional. But what sets him apart is this: he’s both a certified accountant and a trained vocalist.
Bryan grew up in Rímac, a Lima district known for its historic architecture, high crime rates, and economic hardship. Yet amid its colonial streets and crowded foothills, this community is famed as the cradle of música criolla—a traditional Peruvian genre blending Spanish, African, and Indigenous influences—and home to many of Peru’s most iconic composers and performers.
Bryan’s musical journey began with his grandfather, who raised him and taught him his first valses—the Peruvian waltz—and huaynos, a traditional Andean folk style. From there, he sang in the family’s digital orchestra before joining the Sinfonía por el Perú choir at age 13.
Singing in the choir wasn’t just about hitting the right notes. It was about listening, blending with others, waiting your turn, and empathizing with anyone who was off-key. Beyond technical skills, the program also gave Bryan soft skills that proved invaluable: punctuality, consistency, and order—habits that also improved his life away from the stage and in his profession.
In 2019, at age 17, Bryan was selected to travel to Switzerland and perform with a youth choir and the Sinfonía por el Perú orchestra at the renowned Lucerne Festival, alongside teens from Austria and Italy. It was a cultural shock and an emotional awakening. Singing in German, adapting to a new time zone, and performing before demanding audiences gave him a glimpse of a world he never imagined as a child being raised by his grandparents in Rímac.
When he returned home, something had shifted there, too. Friends, family, neighbors, and even strangers began asking how to enroll their children in the program and begin rehearsals. Today, Bryan continues to train as an accountant to gain financial stability, but he has no intention of giving up music.
Music as a tool for social change
Although Sinfonía por el Perú was launched to promote social inclusion through music, its impact goes well beyond artistic achievement. Independent evaluations by the Peruvian think tank GRADE in 2014 and 2018 found that the program improves reading comprehension and math retention, strengthens family bonds, and helps reduce social risks.
Cohesion and mood are high among the members of the Sinfonía por el Perú Youth Choir, on their way to give a performance in Vienna.
Gabriela Perona, the program’s Executive Director, explains that this success is due to the network of support surrounding the music education: parenting workshops, family volunteer programs, psychological counseling, social work, and a safe-environment strategy that promotes self-care and prevents violence. “Quite some of our graduates become professional musicians, and that’s something we’re proud of,” says Gabriela Perona. “But what matters most are the life skills they gain along the way.”
For Christine Rhomberg, Director of Music for Social Change at the Hilti Foundation - the program’s leading partner since 2013 - Sinfonia’s true power isn’t measured in musical excellence or performances. “It lies in the personal development of the individual, in the quiet transformations at home, within families, and then radiates outward creating a ripple effect throughout the community,” she says.