New life for Swiss musical instruments in Mexico

Jorge Viladoms, a Mexican pianist and professor at the Lausanne Conservatory of Music, describes how his life in Switzerland inspired him to help bring music back to his homeland.

It’s a late summer afternoon, and the small but very bright classroom at the Lausanne Conservatory is filled with the soothing notes of Manuel María Ponce’s Intermezzo. At the piano is Jorge Viladoms. The 35-year-old has already had a dazzling career, despite the fact that he only started playing at the age of 15. 

Since that first moment, when he played as an act of catharsis after the death of his father, music has never left his life. At 18, a chance encounter brought him to the music schoolExternal link where he now teaches in southwestern Switzerland.

But there’s no such thing as good luck if it’s not created and shared. At 26, Viladoms became the school’s youngest piano professor. Through his foundation ‘Crescendo con la Música’, he immediately began weaving his passion for music between Switzerland and hundreds of children hungry for a music education back in Mexico.

Thanks to more helping hands, this foundation now also stretches to Kenya. “We’ve created a training concept that can be adapted,” he enthusiastically explains in a conversation with swissinfo.ch.

He adds that his first-hand experience living in Switzerland “where there’s an incredible civic mindset” has contributed to his urge to help disadvantaged children living thousands of miles away.