CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) 鈥� Thousands of Venezuelan musicians, most of them children and adolescents, have earned the title of the world鈥檚 largest orchestra.
The record was set by 8,573 musicians. Guinness World Records in a video released Saturday announced that the musicians, all connected to the country鈥檚 network of youth orchestras, earned the designation with a performance a week earlier of Tchaikovsky鈥檚 鈥淪lavonic March.鈥�
The musicians, ranging in age from 12 to 77, attempted the record during a patriotic concert at a military academy in the capital of Caracas. To set the record, more than 8,097 had to be tallied playing at the same time during a five-minute period of Tchaikovsky鈥檚 piece.
The network of orchestras known as El Sistema, or The System, assembled some 12,000 musicians for the concert. The repertoire included 鈥淰enezuela鈥� by Pablo Herrero and Jose Luis Armenteros, the South American country鈥檚 national anthem and Pedro Gutierrez鈥檚 鈥淎lma Llanera,鈥� which Venezuelans consider their unofficial anthem.
More than 250 supervisors were each assigned a group of musicians to observe during the record attempt.
The previous record belonged to a Russian group that played that country鈥檚 national anthem.
The Associated Press
