Orchestra from Rio's violent slum crosses Atlantic to play for pope

Mare do Amanha is brainchild of Carlos Prazeres and his father who was kidnapped and killed in 1999

LISBON (Reuters) – Born in one of the most violent slums in Rio de Janeiro, Caué Santos could have never imagined that one day he would cross the Atlantic to perform in Lisbon at an event attended by Pope Francis. For him, it is a dream come true.

Santos, 16, is a violinist in an orchestra made up of young musicians from the sprawling Mare "favela", home to more than 140,000 people, where violent police raids and clashes between drug gangs are commonplace.

"If it wasn't for the orchestra, which certainly saved a lot of people... many of us would not be here now," Santos said before an early performance at a central Lisbon viewpoint ahead of the Aug. 2-6 visit by the pontiff to Portugal. Francis will attend the World Youth Day gathering of young Catholics.

Created in 2010, the "Mare do Amanha" orchestra is the brainchild of Carlos Prazeres and his father, Armando, a musical conductor who was kidnapped and killed in 1999. His bloodstained car was found in Mare.

Instead of turning his grief into hatred, Prazeres decided to use music to get children off the streets and away from drug dealing. Mare do Amanha has taught 3,500 children.

"It's something wonderful to feel fulfilled, seeing where we came from and where we are now," said Santos, who joined the project as a 9-year-old, and is the student of Ana Beatriz Sousa, also a violinist from Mare, who is 24.

Sousa, who also studies theology at university, said that inspiring other young people to follow in the orchestra's footsteps keeps her going. "(It's good) to realise that I can go further, I can be more than what society says I am."

Sousa was part of the orchestra group that met Francis in the Vatican in 2017, an experience she will never forget.

In Portugal, they are putting on several concerts and flashmobs to mark the Catholic event, which will bring together more than a million pilgrims.

"I really want him (Francis) to bless these kids because they will go back to Brazil to teach music amidst shootings and God's protection must be with them," Prazeres said.