The non-profit association Dream Orchestra started in 2016 to support unaccompanied newly arrived young people and has grown at record speed. Today, the operation includes over 300 children and young people who are taught orchestral music several times a week, in three different orchestras, based in central Gothenburg. Several concerts are given every year.

“Now we can dream even bigger, support more children and become a full symphony orchestra”, says the orchestra's artistic director Ron Davis Alvarez.

With the support of the Stenastiftelsen, Dream Orchestra can now realize the next dream.

“In times of uncertainty in cultural life, but above all for children and young people, we are so grateful that we can open the doors to Dream Orchestra wide open, offer more places and build on section by section”, says Camilla Sarner, chairman of the board of Dream Orchestra and co-founder of the orchestra with Ron Davis Alvarez.

It was when the conductor Alvarez, who is today awarded many times, came to Gothenburg from Caracas in Venezuela in the fall of 2015 that he decided to start his Dream Orchestra, then with a view to the many unaccompanied young refugees who came here. The donation from the Stena Foundation, spread over three years, means continued continuity in the orchestra, which is primarily aimed at children and young people in various forms of exclusion.

Recently, refugees from Ukraine have also been involved. The orchestra's unique concept, to be open to all ages and all musical levels, has created a safe space in which to develop both for those who want to invest professionally in music and for those who apply to Dream Orchestra mainly to meet new friends, socialize and feel good. Common to all who participate is the feeling of doing something meaningful together.

“We are happy to be able to support an important business led by driven and knowledgeable zealots. A music business of very high quality that means real integration and that makes a difference both socially and individually”, says Madeleine Olsson Eriksson, chairman of Stena A Olsson's Foundation for Research and Culture.

Dream Orchestra can most likely be heard in connection with the annual national day celebration in Slottsskogen on June 6, when the orchestra appears on the same stage as the Gothenburg Symphony.