Launch of Sistema project will be a remarkable legacy

Dad would have been so proud, says daughter

Michael Marra was affectionately known as the Bard of Dundee and his songs will live on for generations to come.

But he may be leaving an even greater legacy for his home city: Big Noise Douglas, the Sistema orchestra that will be officially launched in Dundee tomorrow.

Marra had been a keen advocate of setting up a branch of the musical education programme in Dundee and his death in 2012 that led the launch of a formal campaign to bring it to the City of Discovery.

His daughter Alice, also a singer, said her father would have been thrilled to see the Sistema music project finally open nearly five years after the singer’s family launched a fundraising campaign at his funeral.

Alice said: “It will be five years in October since he died and the first collection we did was at his funeral – that was the start of the campaign.

“I’ll be at the launch on Thursday. It’s absolutely wonderful and he would have been delighted.”

Following Mr Marra’s death, a charity called Optimistic Sound was set up to raise money to create a Sistema orchestra in Dundee.

Sistema originated in Venezuela and uses orchestral music tuition to help change the lives of children in deprived areas.

Its model has been adapted successfully around the world and there are now three centres operating in Scotland: in Raploch in Stirling, Govanhill in Glasgow and in Aberdeen.

A deal to bring the £2.2 million project to Dundee was agreed in March last year.

Sistema teaches children to play an instrument and perform in an orchestra in an effort to boost their confidence and wellbeing.

Big Noise Douglas will begin by working with pupils from primaries one to three in St Pius and Claypotts Castle primary schools

It’s absolutely wonderful and he would have been delighted. ALICE MARRA