The History of the Chicago Cuatro OrchestraThe Chicago Cuatro Orchestra is a Music Express, Inc. community program. Music Express is a private music school and a music store. The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra was founded in 1996 with the purpose of creating a cultural program to preserve Puerto Rico’s national instrument, the Cuatro, and to begin the tradition of a Cuatro festival in Chicago. The Cuatro is a plucked string instrument with five sets of two strings with a traced history of more than 300 years. The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra is directed by Orlando and David Rivera, two professional music teachers from Chicago, and has performed in many important cultural venues. Among others, the Orchestra has performed at The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Center, The Auditorium Theatre, The Chicago Historical Society, Chicago’s Field Museum, Chicago Children’s Museum, the Chicago Cultural Center, Copernicus Center, the Old Town School of Folk Music, and the great Chicago Theater.The Chicago Cuatro Orchestra performs every year as one of the main groups in a one of a kind cultural festival in the United States - The Chicago Puerto Rican Cuatro Festival. The Chicago Puerto Rican Cuatro Festival is a creation of Music Express Inc., the First Chicago Cuatro Orchestra and the cultural organization, the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance. In the present, Music Express, Inc, and the PRAA are working in a partnership with the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Public Schools, offering free cuatro and guitar classes to Humboldt Park community children. The future plans are to duplicate the Cuatro program in different cities of U. S. A., and to create a national Cuatro program network. With this network in place, Music Express, Inc will train qualified music teachers and will expand the program all over United States, creating one day, The U. S. A. National Puerto Rican Cuatro Orchestra and Cuatro Festival.
