Venezuela claims Guinness World Record for largest orchestra

Caracas, November 21 (BNA): The Venezuelan government announced today, Saturday, that the National Youth Orchestra and the Venezuelan Children’s Orchestra known as “Sistema” have set a new Guinness World Record for the largest orchestra in the world, with the participation of 8,573 musicians.

A week ago, more than 12,000 musicians played a classic together for more than five minutes in an attempt to beat a Russian record set two years ago.

Venezuelan Information Minister Freddy Nanese and Russian Ambassador to Caracas Sergey Melek Bagdasarov congratulated the musicians on Saturday in a speech broadcast on state television, Reuters reports.

The broadcast included a recording of Guinness World Records expert Susana Reyes declaring that Venezuelan musicians had succeeded in setting a new record after playing Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s La Marche Slave for more than five minutes.

During the broadcast, President Nicolás Maduro showed the certificate from Guinness World Records acknowledging that “El Sistema” broke the record with 8,573 musicians in an orchestra.

The previous record for an orchestra was 8,097 musicians who played together in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The terms require musicians to play simultaneously without people swapping in and out, or lending their instruments to other players.

Guinness did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Sistema Orchestra includes 350,000 children and young people in its ranks, playing in a network of 180 orchestras.

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