The seven-member ENSEMBLE 7/4 took up their instruments in front of a book-bag -strewn stage to play before Philadelphia elementary and middle school students at St. Francis de Sales School, filling the West Philadelphia block near Baltimore Avenue with Venezuelan, Caribbean and jazz rhythms.

In between answering student questions about themselves and their instruments—four trumpets, a bass, percussion and a Venezuelan cuatro guitar—ENSEMBLE 7/4 played a sample of diverse melodies from their home country of Venezuela and across the Americas. Playfully engaging students by trumpeting through auditorium aisles and encouraging claps and snaps, ENSEMBLE 7/4 seemed to enjoy their performance as much as the students and teachers who found themselves swinging and dancing to the tunes. 

The group and its members are young—it's been just three years since the group of mostly 20-somethings have started playing together. Halfway through their tour of the East Coast, ENSEMBLE 7/4 spent their first day in Philadelphia delighting students from Play On, Philly! (POP), a daily, after-school music education program inspired by the popular Venezuelan system, El Sistema. 

Four of the seven members of ENSEMBLE 7/4 hail from the Venezuelan System of Children and Youth Orchestras (El Sistema), which is a publicly funded voluntary music program that primarily reaches out to students who otherwise could not afford lessons or instruments.

POP has worked at St. Francis de Sales School in West Philadelphia for three years and Freire Charter Middle School in Center City for two years. ENSEMBLE 7/4 plans to play again at Freire tomorrow afternoon. POP students have their own exciting performances coming up. On Friday, the young musicians will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, with a different event this Sunday at World Cafe Live. Earlier this year, student musicians played with Orchestra 2001 and Metropolitan Opera Clarinetist Anthony McGill.