Venezuelan Musicians Attempt to Break Guinness World Record for the World’s Biggest Orchestra

Thousands of musicians, primarily children and adolescents, performed at Venezuela's military academy over the weekend. They had one goal in mind: setting the record as the world's largest orchestra.

The musicians, all from the country's network of youth orchestras, performed a roughly 10-minute Tchaikovsky piece outdoors with independent supervisors looking on to verify that over 8,097 instruments were playing simultaneously, which would break the current record.

The musicians, ranging in age between 12 and 77 and wearing black pants, white shirts and pandemic-mandated face masks, attempted the record during a patriotic, one-hour concert. Songs played included Venezuela's national anthem and "Alma Llanera," which Venezuelans consider their nation's unofficial anthem.

After finishing the "Slavonic March," the musicians erupted in cheers while lifting their instruments and waving Venezuelan flags.

The country's music network, known as "El Sistema," fell short of their goal as they hoped to gather 12,000 musicians. But in 10 days, the Guinness Book of World Records will determine if a record was set.

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