Barquisimeto #4

 

Cabudare

The Cabudare nucleo is an example of how a music centre has created a network of its own in seeking to expand its ability to serve the community. The rather complex model was explained to us by the director Emilio. The nucleo has a central site based at a cultural centre with seven other extension sites altogether serving 3,400 chn with 74 teachers. Despite their efforts to reach out to as many willing students as possible, there are still many kids they can’t accept into the program as they are unable to accommodate them all. Again children can’t come every day as there is not enough space. The first site we visit is one of the extension sites, and it serves 500 children with 1 secretary for administration work. There are a lot of parents and relatives around, more so than at other nucleos we have visited so far.

In addition to his duties directing activities at the eight sites, Emilio also conducts the main orchestra. He has spent 26 years working in El Sistema and told us that the experience has been “fun, informal learning – not work!” He started his musical career by learning the cuatro and then studying at the conservatory. Alfredo shortly afterwards offered him a job in El Sistema. Like most of the directors we talked to, Emilio was open and honest about the workings of the music centres. One issue is student retention; a lot of them come regularly to the program for between a year to three years. This makes it difficult to show results of the student’s learning to parents to motivate them to keep their kids in the program. It also means that the level of most children is restricted to beginner and intermediate with more advanced musicians being directed to the nucleo based at the conservatory.

 

At the extension nucleo, we were treated to a presentation by the Handbells Choir and observed the children’s orchestra rehearsal briefly. The rehearsal seemed to be pretty relaxed and not necessarily as efficient as we are used to, with problems not necessarily being addressed straight away. This is a reminder of how much more time the teachers have here, they can afford to allow the students to figure it out during the repetitive rehearsals. The highlight for me was the Cantoria Cabudare, an adult choir made up of parents and other members of the community.

We were then quickly rushed to the main site where a concert of Christmas songs by the Coro Infantil (Children’s Choir) all decked out in Santa hats was taking place in the auditorium of the cultural centre. We were starting to become familiar with the most popular Venezuelan Christmas carols by this point. After a brief peek at the guitar and cuatro class rehearsing in the dark in the art room, we saw the original room where the orchestra first rehearsed at the nucleo. It was not much bigger than your average kitchen. 

 

Barquisimeto #3

Incret

Incret is an eight month old nucleo based in a disused government building, and open from 2.30-5.30pm every afternoon. There are 900 children from between 4-14 years old who come on different days during the week, as the site is not able to accommodate everyone all at once. There are 23 teachers working here, and around 200 children in the beginner orchestra. The students gave their first concert one month ago.  Not all children are able to have private lessons but have access to small group lessons. We saw a cross-section of the activities that are going on here: Coro Guaritos (Kindergarten Choir), Coro Infantil (Children’s Choir), a recorder group, a music theory lesson, a violin sectional and woodwind group.

Our first visit was to the Coro Guaritos; we saw how conducting small children when directing the choir is important as it teaches them how to interpret gestures from a young age. Also the director and her two teaching assistants made sure that the focus of the children was on the conductor as much as possible during their performance. Again it was refreshing after the showcases of the Caracas nucleos to see students in the process of learning the basics of their instruments. The woodwind group played a slow but sure version of ‘Ode to Joy’ and the recorder group’s performance of ‘Joy to the World’ ended at different times, whilst the violin sectional involved a monotonous repetition of one passage.  

We spent most of our time at the beginner orchestra rehearsal. There were different ability levels and age groups in the same orchestra, which we have seen in other nucleos as well, but the kids don’t seem to mind. It struck me how the older kids are not affected at the thought of their street-cred being harmed by playing with younger kids and at the same level, and rehearsing beginner strings music that is simplistic and not always pleasant to hear! They are encountering the same challenges as the younger children and seem just as motivated to master their instrument. Perhaps they have been to concerts of other nucleo orchestras or maybe the name of El Sistema and the celebrity that Dudamel has in Venezuela (he is as well-known as the most popular baseball stars) has given them the motivation to persevere with the program.

The children are arranged according to ability which means that some of the kids get lost way at the back of the cavernous rehearsal room. We hear that in some cases in El Sistema, children are paired with someone of higher ability so they can learn from their stand partner, but we also saw a lot of the traditional arrangements with the more able at the front with better access to direction and feedback, and those struggling at the back. In addition there was a lot of poor posture going on and, in this case, there weren’t any additional teachers to the conductor who would be able to attend to this. A quick flick through the orchestra repertoire folder showed that they were currently working on simple arrangements of Venezuelan Christmas songs and ensemble arrangements of Suzuki Violin Book 1 melodies. The children were so happy to play for us and to interact with us and our not always fabulous Spanish skills! We were glad to perform a couple of songs for them and they responded with pieces they had prepared for their first concert.

Barquisimeto #2

Most afternoons during our time in Barquisimeto found us visiting a nucleo. Here are my thoughts on four very different music centres:

Santa Rosa Nucleo

We were already sold on this nucleo when we heard the poetic story of how the courtyard in this village fills with musicians every afternoon practicing in the shade. It’s a beautiful and serene place next to a large Catholic church. The nucleo  is two years old and serves 900 children with a variety of choral and orchestral ensembles including the two orchestras (Children’s and Youth) with 80-110 children in each. There is also an extension nucleo nearby in a very poor area which some of the Fellows visited.

I first went to observe the Pre-Infantil Choir with children from 1-7 years. About 35-40 children were all standing relatively still and on-task in three long rows, with an adorable toddler waddling up and down in between! This was the first time I observed team teaching in a choral setting: the roles of director, vocal coach, pianist and teaching assistant are apparent, and they do not necessarily fulfil the same role with each group they teach. The first half of the session was spent on warm-up activities which dealt with many aspects of vocal technique through fun exercises and games. The second half of the rehearsal involved singing some Venezuelan Christmas songs the children had already memorized. There wasn’t any obvious teaching input going on in terms of describing a new concept or explanations, but instead the activities included lots of repetition and modelling from the teachers. This modelling involved prompting the children with the correct lyrics, leading the melody, and demonstrating the hand gestures accompanying the song, as well as correct posture and behaviour. I have experienced a similar kind of team teaching with younger children, being assisted by class teachers and teaching assistants whilst preparing for musical productions, but this experience reminded me what a useful tool it is to have so many adults demonstrating the same abilities to guide the children’s learning process.

Later, we observed the Infantil (Childrens) Choir; this was a small group of seven children (9-11 years) whose warm-up activities has an emphasis on posture and technique, and the assistants were moving around, correcting posture and mouth shape. The vocal coach was delivering instructions on how to stand in a balanced posture, whilst the assistants helped the singers to copy what was being demonstrated. Team teaching at this level is absolutely fascinating to watch, as the children benefit from group teaching and individual attention at the same time (obviously made easier here by the small group). It was fantastic to see these young singers get to grips with vocal technique, and it highlighted how El Sistema gives its participants the opportunity to fulfil their potential in all aspects of the singing experience. None of what we saw was particularly revolutionary, however, but consistent dedication to excellent and unified team teaching.

 

 

Barquisimeto #1

We are based in Barquisimeto for the next seven days of our trip. Most activity is centred around the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory, whilst we have the opportunity in the afternoon to visit some of the 10 nucleos in the wider city. We are met by Gary Nunez and Alfredo D’Addona who are both trumpet players in Simon Bolivar A, the first generation of the orchestra originally formed and conducted by Maestro Abreu. Gary supervises the curriculum for Lara state and Alfredo is the director of all the nucleos in Lara. The Conservatory was built 20 years ago by the government, with the building also being host to an El Sistema nucleo – 3000 kids coming from all nucleos in Lara. The Conservatory and nucleo often work together on concerts and programs.

Also taking advantage of the facilities here is the Lara Symphony Orchestra, a professional organisation that is not part of El Sistema, and rehearses every morning at the conservatory. It is made up of many of the teachers from the nucleos. This is mirrored by the professional choir, the Camarate Larense, which is made up of children’s choir directors and vocal technique coaches who also work in the nucleos.

A well-known part of the nucleo's activities, the Special Needs Department are pioneers in making music-making accessible to all; those with learning difficulties, physical and mental disabilities, sight and hearing problems. There are also doctors on site who attend to the students needs, and one who is an ear specialist. We were treated to a presentation of the department´s activities later on in the week.

The conservatory has great pride in its most famous pupil; Gustavo Dudamel. This mural is painted along the wall opposite the conservatory, and the new concert hall that will be built here will be named after him. Dudamel studied violin here from the age of 14 with the branch of the Violin Academy onsite, which includes more teachers from the first generation of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra.

My questions about the nature of training provided by the Conservatory were answered by one student called Jesús Alejandro. He has studied here for 8 years and still has a year and a half to go! His musical journey began by learning the cuatro outside of El Sistema, and then joining the Cabudare nucleo at 16 to learn the violin. His further training shows a great interdisciplinary approach to musical studies: advanced violin studies, music theory, composition, conducting, psychology of education and sociology, research methods, child development, teacher training and mentoring, and practical teaching experience at the Incret nucleo for the last two and a half years.

I was also struck by how he described El Sistema as a “system of sharing”. All members are engaged in discovering their musical identity in a mixture of different roles, which has been described by previous fellows as CATS (Citizen, Artist, Teacher, Scholar), and there is a humility, openness and sort of educational democracy in being aware that all members have something to teach another. For example, Alfredo (director of all Lara nucleos) continues to study in classes with Jesús, learning more about instrumental technique. This is such a refreshing and challenging way of seeing ourselves as musicians.

Caracas #3

Montalban

Our second nucleo visit was a showcase of one fabulous performance after another, which left us all flabbergasted! A programme was carefully choreographed and organised so that we were able to see a variety of ensembles perform: a choir of French horns, three beginner French Horn players, a children's choir, a kindergarten xylophone class, beginner strings, a traditional Venezuelan ensemble, the children's and youth orchestras, big band, percussion ensemble and a chamber orchestra. Here were my immediate thoughts:

• The children were so at ease with performing to us and had been well prepared. Those who were in the same hall as other ensembles would sing or bop along to other performances. They obviously enjoyed watching each other perform and know the repertoire well.
• Exuberant playing and the confidence of the performer seems to be more important than the accuracy of the notes; we heard the beginner strings group play Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker so fiercely that I could see small clouds of rosin coming off the bow. This reminded me of seeing the hairs coming off the bow of several cello players whilst playing Shostakovich at the Guarenas nucleo.
• Youth leadership was again seen, but not to the same extent as at Guarenas. The six or seven year old French horn players were directed by a teenager in their performance of 'Ode to Joy' and the teachers of the traditional folk ensemble must have been in their late teens or early twenties.
• Members of the children's choir had recently sung in Mahler's Eighth Symphony in the Teatro Teresa Carreno under Gustavo Dudamel along with the Simon Bolivar and L.A. Phil Orchestras. Wow.
• The children's and youth orchestras were again so huge that we experienced an onslaught of high energy sound. We witnessed some great displays of technique and confidence from those who had been playing for a short time.
• The teacher who was directing the folk music ensemble performed on the maracas in a way that was truly spellbinding. I was dazzled by the variety of complex rhythms he played and began to understand how the maracas can be seen as a solo instrument capable of virtuosic playing.
• The big band and percussion ensemble simply looked as if every member was having a blast. They played some fun repertoire including Bernstein's 'Mambo', a samba version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and an arrangement of some TV themes. You could see them enjoying certain passages and exchanging looks and smiles, especially when they could see their audience swaying or singing along. These were great, informal performances.
   
  
  
  

Violin Festival 2013

The annual Violin Festival is a series of concerts where members of the violin academy (Academia Latinoamericana de Violin) are given the chance to perform concertos with some of the top orchestras. The Academy is headed up by Jose Francisco del Castillo, and based at the conservatory in Barquisimeto (Gustavo Dudamel also studied with Del Castillo from the age of 14). It provides the chance to have private lessons and masterclasses with exceptional teachers, and to study solo repertoire for their instrument more intensively. The students are also part of, or have been a part of the national orchestras. We attended the first half of one concert where concertos by Barber and Mendelssohn were played by a 16 year old member of the National Children’s Orchestra, and also a member of the first violins of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra.

The performances were not what I had expected from having seen many vibrant and confident performances at the Montalban and Guarenas nucleos. The soloists didn’t seem to have as much charisma, stage presence, freedom of movement and expression as their orchestral counterparts. Often when their solo melody was doubled up by the strings section, it was difficult to hear the soloist’s sound come through. It seems then, that the intense ensemble training in the orchestra that El Sistema is so famous for, might hinder the growth of the musician as a soloist, and I wonder how the academy might be addressing this.

Villa-Lobos Festival

As we toured the Centro Social, we were able to take a sneek peak at the Simon Bolivar Orchestra rehearsing for their concerts as part of the Villa-Lobos Festival. A large contingent of representatives from various Brazilian youth orchestras, and also Brazilian conductors and soloists were preparing joint performances with the Venezuelans. The festival was to finish with the Orquesta Sinfonica Binacional Brasil-Venezuela, but the concert we attended on Saturday was Brazilian repertoire conducted by Marcelo Lehninger from Brazil, and played by the Venezuelans. It was fabulous to see this exchange and strengthening of connections between the two countries through music. Of course, seeing the Simon Bolivar Orchestra live in the concert hall that was built for them definitely lived up to expectations.

And so ended the first part of our stay in Caracas. We will return at the end of our month here in Venezuela. On to Barquisimeto for a week…

Caracas #2

Centre for Social Action through Music

 We had the chance to visit the purpose-built Centre for Social Action through Music (Centro Nacional de Accion Social por la Musica) in Caracas. The building was funded partly by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Development Fund, and Maestro Abreu was instrumental in its design. Every detail has been considered in light of serving the musicians who practise, rehearse, research and perform there. There are soundproof practice rooms, rehearsal rooms of varying sizes and heights for chamber groups and larger ensembles, multimedia labs for compiling digital archives and research, and two performance halls. All have outlets so that recording equipment can be plugged in, and rehearsals and performances can be directly transferred to the archive. This system is unique amongst concert halls and conservatories across the world. In addition, the acoustician for the Walt Disney Hall has been involved with the design of the main performance hall in the Centre, and also for the Barquisimeto that is being planned. The larger concert hall in Caracas was also designed by the same architect as the other major performing space in the capital, the Teatro Teresa Carreno.

Maestro Abreu carefully chose the location of the centre – transport-wise it is easy to get to with a main road going past and a metro station next door, religious centres are close nearby, the building backs out onto the Parco Central, and beyond that you can see the Teatro Teresa Carreno and the high rise block containing the offices of the FundaMusica Simon Bolivar. There is even a bandstand built in with a mechanised door, so that concerts can easily take place with the for the community. Apparently at one concert they were expecting an audience of 2,000 in the park, but ended up with 7,000!

To the east of the building, construction has already started on another wing which will mostly house a new Latin-American Teacher Training facility. A large plot of land to the west has also been acquired, and will include five more performance halls as well as more rehearsal space and practice rooms. The entire construction is planned to be finished in 2019, and Roderigo mentioned that Maestro Abreu is keen that it will be known as the 'Simon Bolivar City of Music'.

A further loan from the Inter-American Development Bank and financial support from the government will be used to continue this expansion and to also build similar centres in the other seven regions of Venezuela by 2019. The aim is for each region to have a conservatory so that students do not need to leave their community to get high quality musical opportunities, and so they can easily go back to their nucleos to teach. Roderigo emphasised how there are no existing performance spaces in communities outside of Caracas, apart from some small town amphitheatres. Eventually, there will be regional and state-wide concert halls as well as the national Centre in Caracas.

The model of the 'Simon Bolivar City of Music'

 

Caracas #1

Two days have already gone swiftly by in Venezuela. We arrived at noon on Wednesday and were greeted by a large banner of the last President Hugo Chavez with pupils of El Sistema. The journey from the airport to the city took us from the ocean and over beautiful mountain passes, then past the favelas (slums) perched on the top of steep hills and hugging the slopes, and then onto the highways of the city centre. 

Rodrigo Guerrero met us at the airport, and will be our guide and translator for most of the trip. He is the deputy director of International Relations for 'Fundacion Musical Simon Bolivar', the foundation that supports the nucleos (music centres) around the country. Although he didn't study music himself, his father was a violinist and is the legal consulant for the organisation. He was also part of an important milestone in El Sistema history, as he wrote the charter that created the Foundation through which the orchestras first received consistent government support and funding for the project.

Rodrigo has been working for FundaMusical Bolivar for 17 years, the last 7 of which have been very different as the orchestras have been gaining more and more interest abroad. Not only does he accompany the orchestras on international tours, but there are also a huge amount of international visitors, music educators, politicians, diplomats, media representatives, etc that he is responsible for hosting.

Guarenas

Our first taste of El Sistema was the nucleo of Guarenas, a large town outside of Caracas. We were able to see a small part of the activity at the nucleo where there are currently 1100 students. The building used to be a police station, so there are many rooms without windows, or the windows are barred. The hallmarks of the program were immediately evident: focus, intensity, joy, stamina, repetition, young leadership, instances of exceptional skill, and an astonishing youthful sound.

We began with a musica lengua (musical language) class where young children where learning the notes on the stave and written rhythms. Following from that, there were two strings classes taking place, the children's orchestra, the choir, and finally we experienced the youth orchestra.  

The strings classes of beginner violins gave us a snapshot of the how the program uses repetition – the children were playing the same melody, whilst focusing on one aspect of technique. In this case the teacher was looking for long bow strokes, and he was moving energetically to model the movement. There was a strength in the sound created was mirrored in the children's and the youth orchestra, and also in the choir. The vibrancy and energy found in all the music-making in the nucleo was almost overwhelming, and we were able to see how it is cultivated from a young age.

This also seems to determines the choice of repertoire with the large symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich taking precedence over more the elegance of Mozart for example. The ensembles dynamic range seemed to vary from forte (loud) to fortissimo (very loud), and instances when the teachers were trying to achieve piano (quiet) were not always successful. But it is the confidence and youthful identity reflected in the sound that is important. I also noticed how the youth orchestra managed to make some passages of dotted rhythms of European music almost sound like a piece of Latin American traditional music.

The youth orchestra of the nucleo was a mix of students from Guarenas and the nearby town of Guatire. The kids had been playing their instruments for three years, and had been playing in this orchestra for two months. They rehearse three hours a day Monday to Saturday and are preparing a concert of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky for next week. We noticed how many of the players had memorised large parts of the symphonies, playing long passages with their eyes fixed on the conductor. The ensemble skills of the orchestra were very impressive - again there was a passion and a joy that gave me goosebumps throughout most of the performance!

In terms of exceptional talents, we saw a ten year old boy playing the cello in the front desk of the youth orchestra amidst children at least four years older than him, and also we met the clarinettist who played in the National Children's Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle in Salzburg.

The young leaders we saw teaching and directing show how the program puts their faith in youth leadership. The nucleo director, Maestro Edgar, is 30 years old and conducts the youth orchestra. He was very eloquent in talking about the social, moral and musical vision of the program, and said that his goal is to make the orchestra as good as the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela. He is a conducting pupil of Maestro Abreu and the previous director of Guarenas, who is now director of all nucleos. He supervises a new set of repertoire each month resulting in one new symphony being prepared for a concert.

Next, the Montalban nucleo...




 

 

 

 

Batuta in Colombia

Batuta (The Baton)

The Fellows and other guests were lucky to hear the Executive Director of Batuta speak at NEC  couple of weeks ago. Juan Antonio Cuellar runs this community music education project in Columbia, and spoke very eloquently in the organisation's mission of social change through music.

First of all he emphasised the fact that Batuta exists to tackle social issues in a variety of different communities and demographics. There must be an understanding of the root cause to address, and in order to do this - know your community! He mentioned that institutionalised education systems often prepare individuals to become successful in society and assume that this will lead to a strong community, whereas Batuta seeks to build communities to create a cohesive and successful society.

Secondly, he talked about why his organisation uses music to deal with these root causes of social issues. Not only is there connections and community being built as the children learn to play in musical ensembles, but also the act of being an audience member and sharing a powerful musical experience brings parents and other members of the community together, who otherwise may be at odds during their professional lives. Why classical symphonic music? Similar to the arguments of El Sistema: the beauty of the music, the opportunities to create large ensembles, to access music from a different world and context to their own, to show that the music traditionally reserved for the enjoyment of the elite can belong to Latin American children as much as their own traditions.

The repertoire used in the Batuta program is chosen for social change purposes - often they start with traditional Columbian music to get kids initially involved, choose songs with appropriate lyrics, progressing on to pieces that create a large sound and an impact audibly e.g. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The larger the scale of the piece, the more people who are involved musically in contributing to one collective sound, the greater the opportunities for community building. Maestro Cellar also answered a few questions about how the program is funded. It relies mostly on public support and even has the First Lady of Columbia and the Mayor of Bogota on the board! Indeed, it was originally initiated and funded by a previous First Lady, but after the end of the 4 year term, Batuta has not enjoyed a consistent amount of support from the government. He mentioned one example of a situation when funding intended for Batuta was going to be allocated elsewhere. To change their minds, the program put on an incredible concert, after which the community pressured the mayor into continuing to provide funds for Batuta. This is again similar to Abreu's way of convincing potential supporters and the community to stand alongside the program, by allowing the children's performance to do all the persuading.

Lastly, Maestro Cellar made a great remark about the necessity of children and teachers being at rehearsals on time: "The trumpet solo sounds terrible if it starts an eighth note before its supposed to, think about 5 minutes late!"

http://www.fundacionbatuta.org/

Preparing for Venezuela #3

So now we have a vague idea of the itinerary of our upcoming Venezuelan odyssey! We were very fortunate to have a meeting not only with Erik Holmgren, who has helped organise fellows trips to Venezuela, but also Rodrigo Guerrero - part of El Sistema management and he's done a lot of work to make our trip possible! It looks like this:
Caracas - 4 days
Barquisimeto - 1 week
Guarico - 1 week
Caracas - 9 days

Other fellows have said this and Erik reiterated today that seldom do you embark on an experience that you *know* will be hugely positive, transformative, and so inspirational that it will guide your life's work and dreams for years to come. Wow. Is it American hyperbole? Let's find out! ;)

Salon evening

We had a great evening at 18 Dalrymple - food, some excellent cider, and sharing music. It was awesome to play and sing some Venezuelan songs with our Venezuelan guests of honour, Aristides and Andrea - the song 'Alma Llanera' accompanied by the cuatro, ukulele and sign language with a White Hands Choir alumni! Aristidies also joined us for an acapella arrangement of 'Caballo Viejo'.

 

Finally, the Venezuelan National Anthem - Glory to the Brave People!

Chicago Trip

The Sistema Fellows hit our first conference in the Fellowship in Chicago last week. The National Guild for Community Arts Education conference ran for three days, with half of us being Work Study Volunteers. http://communityartsed.nationalguild.org/Home.aspx

Highlights of the conference for me were:

• Discussing evaluation models of an arts program's impact on students and communities. This was a refreshing look on assessment and evaluation outside of my experience using the British National Curriculum Standards & Levels, using logic models to structure the curriculum to produce outcome-based evaluations. Sounds heavy, but this seems to me to be a much more personal way of assessing with the focus on the impact on the attitudes and behaviours of the students, and not just the levels of the skills acquired. The impact on the community is also not something usually taken into account in conventional educational assessments. 
•  Smart Education Systems A keynote speech on the national narrative of the US Public School Education system - the focus on raising standards, mostly by investing in new assessment models and curriculum, very similar to the trends in the British system. The speaker, Warren Simmons, was suggesting that community arts programs are able to change that narrative by modelling collaborations between different organisations at the local level to provide students with a more holistic range of learning opportunities - 'community-centred education reform'. http://annenberginstitute.org/about/smart-education-systems
• Brand Essence This was a challenge to choose two words that really summed up the focus and mission of an organisation, and its competitive edge in the field. The process helped defined for me what impact I am hoping to make and why. Your chosen 'brand' would also determine how you publicise and market the organisation. My two words are not about what the organisation itself would look like, but what the youth involved would be like - Confident Initiators.

Looking forward to the Take A Stand conference in LA in February....

There were also some opportunities to check out some El Sistema programming in Chicago - I was able to visit El Sistema Ravinia (a program facilitated by an arts festival) and Hibbard Elementary School, one of the nucleos of the People's Music School Youth Orchestras. http://www.peoplesmusicschool.org/

http://www.ravinia.org/

A couple of great videos about the People's Music School and their Youth Orchestras - two of my fellow fellows were previously employed by this organisation and another fellow, Albert Oppenheimer, is the director of the Youth Orchestras.
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2012/06/11/yours-project

http://video.pbs.org/video/1901408265/

And of course, we couldn't leave Chicago without a visit to the Symphony! Emmanuel Ax playing Mozart - bliss...

 http://cso.org/TicketsAndEvents/EventDetails.aspx?eid=5677

Also of great interest is that Chicago Symphony and their training orchestra, the Civic Symphony, have launched a two-year Citizen Musician Fellowship. It sounds awesome and Yo-Yo Ma is heavily involved as well. Great to hear of more musicians being trained to use their music for the community: http://citizenmusician.org/

Rebuild Africa - A Sunday Afternoon Chat

A chance encounter meant that I attended a talk a couple of sundays ago about a NGO in Liberia called 'Rebuild Africa'. Despite its title, the organisation's work is solely in a few communities in Liberia. I was really struck by the way the program addresses what they call the pre-war child, the post-war child and young leaders, with separate projects designed for each situation; education, vocational training and mentoring respectively. Here is an organisation that has spent a lot of time considering the social issues, and what these children and youth most need.

The founder, Bill, showed us how much the program has progressed in the few years since it started - youth trained in the construction trade are being employed on graduating from their program, and in turn, more affordable homes are being built and made available. Entrepreneurship and 'holistic leadership' are also greatly emphasised in the education and mentoring programs. I love the fact that they have set up 'a rigorous program of education, training, mentoring, and practical hands-on experience'. Sounds like the Fellowship! And also like the more dynamic project-based learning experiences that we are investigating in community arts programs, as opposed to more conventional models of education. Bill talked about many challenges for the program, one of which being the ability of the teachers to be counsellors to the children who have undergone much trauma due to the civil war. This leads me back to think about how music has the potential to facilitate the healing process, minister to our emotional needs, and provide a platform to resolve conflicts...

 http://www.rebuildafrica.org/

Preparing for Venezuela #2

Further preparations....


Joe Tulchin - We had a great visit from an expert on Latin America, who was able to give us a bit of background on Venezuela: the history, economy, society and thoughts on El Sistema. What a fount of knowledge!http://www.joetulchin.com/

A former fellow Marie Montilla, along with her husband Jorge, taught in El Sistema for some years before the fellowship. They visited us along with their charming daughter who sings, plays the flute and violin. Our challenge was to practice teaching her only in Spanish. Great lessons we learned about the virtues of hand signals and demonstrations to make up for our less-than-fluent Spanish skills...

Marie works in Boston with the Youth and Family Enrichment Services (YOFES) music program http://www.yofes.org/oamecprogram/teachers-bios2/ and she is the founding director of Kids4Harmony in Pittsburgh: http://www.berkshirechildren.org/bcf_elsistema.html

Another alumni of El Sistema came to talk to us about his experiences. Now a freelance performer and teacher (he plays the cello in the Boston Phil), he spent 12 years studying the cello after starting his music education learning the cuatro. It was easy to tell how Aristides believes in the power of music to save lives - most of his contemporaries in the neighbourhood he grew up in have either been involved in shootings or imprisoned. He taught us this beautiful song 'Como llora una estrella':

http://www.aristidesrivas.com/
Aristides was also involved in a trip to a village near the Angel Falls in Venezuela, where a group of four musicians taught and prepared a concert with a local music project. The project was started by the daughter of a missionary who wished to form a choir at the village church, which later grew into a large string orchestra at a standard where they were able to perform Bach. See this great video documenting their trip: http://vimeo.com/34528353

Two concerts...

Being spoilt for choice for concerts in Boston, I have been taking advantage of the great fortune of having two concert halls right next to the El Sistema office - NEC's Jordan Hall and Boston Symphony Hall. Our first visit to Symphony Hall included the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler's 2nd Symphony 'Resurrection' with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Mahler's strong belief in the resurrection led him to write the lyrics to the finale of the symphony: "O believe, my heart, but believe: Nothing will be lost to you!". Interestingly, the last time the BSO and Tanglewood performed the piece, they created a trailer to promote the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPRzC5mHKDQ

Some of my fellow Fellows and I queued to get $9 rush tickets to hear Yo-Yo Ma play Shostakovich's Cello Concerto at Symphony Hall with the BSO. I first became familiar with this Concerto after watching Guy Johnson break a string whilst playing it in the BBC Young Musician of the Year final. Yo-Yo Ma managed to convey the feelings of frustration and aggression of the piece without damaging his instrument! Having read a bit on Shostakovich at school (including the story of him sleeping with a packed suitcase at the doorstep of his apartment so as not to disturb his family if he was arrested), it was shocking to again experience his music which conveys a sense of the oppression that he suffered whilst surviving as an artist under Stalin. Ma also struck us as being a very humble performer and having a different persona on stage to that of most professional soloists we have seen. He took his time to welcome and thank those on stage and the audience, and would only bow with the conductor at the end of the performance. He is heavily involved with a couple of amazing music community projects: http://www.silkroadproject.org/, http://cso.org/Institute/CitizenMusician.aspx. Other highlights of the concert included the conductor's flamboyant hair and amazing ability to use different gestures to cue different instruments. $9 well spent.

The Future of the El Sistema Fellowship

The 2014 Class of El Sistema Fellows are now at the mid-point in the first semester of our program. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that the experience so far has been constantly inspiring, challenging, liberating and, at many points, emotional. I am sure that it will continue to be so and more, especially considering our imminent visit to Venezuela. Before I started the program I was describing the experience I was about to undertake to friends and family as 'my dream year'. Everything I could have possibly dreamt up that I would want to learn about and experience has been created in snapshots in this program. I have certainly not been disappointed, and when I learnt about how NEC intends to continue their work with the Fellows, I feel immensely grateful all over again.

The following is Tony Woodcock's announcement of the future of the Fellowship from the NEC website:


Dear friends of NEC,
As you undoubtedly know, we are currently in the fifth year of the Sistema Fellows Program at NEC. It is hard to believe how quickly time has gone by since Dr. José Antonio Abreu issued his challenge to us in his 2009 TED Prize Wish. He asked us to create a professional training program for 50 postgraduate musicians—10 per year— who are passionate about creating careers for themselves that connect music, youth, and social change. Already there are four classes, 40 alumni Fellows, out in the field where they are acknowledged leaders and experts in the El Sistema-inspired North American network. The fifth class (in photo above) has begun its training and will follow their predecessors in this important work when they graduate next summer. We have fulfilled Dr. Abreu’s Wish and the results are extremely compelling. Consider these achievements:
Every one of the alumni is contributing to the field.

• Sistema Fellows are transforming communities in 25 cities in the U.S. and around the globe.
• In 2010, when the first class of Sistema Fellows entered the field, their programs served approximately 600 children. This year, close to 5,000 children are being served in programs involving Sistema Fellows.
• Current program enrollment ranges from fewer than 20 to more than 400 children with operating budgets that range from approximately $25,000 to $1.3 million.
• On average, each child spends close to 10 hours per week in El Sistema-inspired programming involving Sistema Fellows. Cumulatively, then, children across all US nucleos will spend approximately 1.5 million hours in musical training this year.
• Programs involving Sistema Fellows employ more than 250 teaching artists.

We’re not the only ones who are proud of our Fellows’ accomplishments. We have a letter (in photo right) from Dr. Abreu himself thanking us, praising the work of the Fellows, and envisioning a grand celebration in Venezuela next summer. He wrote it while Leslie Foley and I were in Venezuela last month discussing next steps. I’ve attached it at the bottom of this letter. I must add here, though, that NEC couldn’t have achieved what it has without the active partnership and support of Dr. Abreu and his El Sistema (FundaMusical Bolívar) colleagues. They have been unfailingly generous to us, particularly during the Fellows’ annual residencies in Venezuela.

So what are the next steps?
Based on our analysis of the field, a survey conducted among the first four classes of alumni, and many requests, NEC has decided it could best serve the movement going forward by building on the work already accomplished. That is, by strengthening and enhancing the expertise and skills of the 50 alumni Fellows.
After discussion with arts management consultant Greg Kandel and senior advisor/ teaching artist Eric Booth, who have been deeply involved in the Sistema Fellows program and the entire field from its inception, NEC has decided it will work over the next two years to:

• Provide Professional Development. This will include supplemental training in organizational management, curriculum development, teacher training, finance, board development, and fundraising. This can be done on campus through classes in our School of Continuing Education or online through webinars.
• Facilitate Field Work. We will help facilitate Fellows and their staff to observe and experience other programs, both in the United States and in Venezuela.
• Provide Networking and Collaboration Opportunities. This will enhance the Fellows’ program success through convenings and reunions during which these leaders can learn from each other, adopt best practices, and renew friendships.
• Develop Online Resources. Our expanding repository of materials will offer invaluable guidance to those working in the field.

We have consulted with the leaders of El Sistema in Venezuela and they have embraced our new strategy, while celebrating the success of the past five years. (In photo, l to r, Tony Woodcock, José Antonio Abreu, Leslie Wu Foley and Eduardo Mendez in Venezuela in September.)

Our plan, then, is one of reinvestment in our Fellows. We are enormously proud of the great work they are doing and we want to assist and sustain them as they move beyond the foundational level of their programs into the more mature phases.

In addition, we want to find ways to integrate the ideals of El Sistema more completely into our college curriculum, including working in conjunction with our outstanding Entrepreneurial Musicianship program and Community Performances and Partnerships program. Our hope is to deepen NEC students’ commitment to become citizen artists. As the Fellows are already demonstrating, El Sistema offers a new vision of musicians in the community, one that takes them from the periphery to the center as agents of transformation. It’s a vision that beckons musicians to become what Dr. Abreu calls “Apostles to Society.”
As always, if you have any questions, I’m more than happy to answer them.
Best regards,
Tony Woodcock, President

Letter from José Antonio Abreu:

September 11, 2013
To New England Conservatory, as a testimony of our highest esteem, affection and eternal gratitude.
We hope that the year 2014 will mark the start of a new stage in our relationship, through which we shall be able to build permanent cooperation and exchange programs in the pedagogic, social and artistic realms. We eagerly hope to celebrate the renewal of our cooperation agreement in a great celebratory event in August 2014.
We hope to maintain an enriching and fruitful connection through the inclusion of a growing number of young students, teachers and experiences.
May God bless our objectives, for the benefit of the musical development of each of our countries and in benefit of our mutual collaborations.
Many thanks, Maestro Woodcock, for your admirable work and your noble support of the Venezuelan children and youth.

 

Preparing for Venezuela #1

As we get closer to the Big Trip to the home of El Sistema, the fellows have been having some preparatory classes varying from learning Venezuelan songs, learning to teach in Spanish and getting an overview of the political situation in Venezuela.

A member of the Friends of the El Sistema Fellowship, Mercedes Rodman came to talk to us about being a visitor to her home town of Caracas, and to teach us a couple of Venezuelan songs. She plays the cuatro, a traditional Venezuelan guitar-like instrument. I have a feeling that it might get added to my string instrument collection... Mercedes has also written a children's book about El Sistema and bullying called The Blue Butterfly. I'm looking forward to getting a copy in the mail. Here are the two songs that she taught us - 'Venezuela' and 'Alma Llanera':

 

 

Cute Brazilian kids experience Classical Music for the first time

 

Enough said.



Dani's BPO Fellowship & Benjamin Zander

Look at those grins! This a lovely photo (courtesy of Eriel Huang) of Dani, myself and the Maestro Benjamin Zander. Dani is having a great time in the new role of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Fellow. She is responsible for the Education and Outreach programs where members of both the BPO and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra get involved with teaching in four Boston schools. Dani and I were housemates when we were both teaching in Arusha - now we both have musical fellowships in Boston!

Dani has (of course) done an amazing job of writing curriculums particular to each school, ranging from Band Buddies to kindergarten classes. She has written songs, revamped the Kidz Notes program booklets and is pioneering new initiatives to bring more children to concerts. These are going to be awesome. The BPO also has a 'Music Without Boundaries' program where they provide concert tickets to inner-city schools.

I was lucky enough to experience one of the famous Ben Zander pre-concert talks before the BPO performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony on September 30th. These talks have become legendary and a vital part of the BPO musical performance experience. He is a massively charismatic speaker who conveys a huge amount of passion and deep understanding about the works he is about to conduct, and a commitment to sharing that with others. Watch these video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html?quote=305

The performance itself of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and 9th Symphony was a particularly poignant event as the concert had originally been scheduled this past April. It was cancelled due to the bombing of the Boston Marathon, and this performance was in honour of "the spirit of generosity and strength the people of Boston demonstrated in the face of tragic events". Many service workers had been given free tickets to this performance and the Governor of Mass. was also invited. The Ode to Joy took on another powerful meaning, and I was also effected by the passionate singing of the Chorus.

During the pre-concert talk, Zander had focused on his interpretation of the Symphony using the composer's original metronome markings, that are usually considered as too outrageously fast to be applied to performance. Zander has also co-written a book called 'The Art of Possibility', and its this joy of pushing the limits of what is possible that made the frenetic pace of the performance so exhilarating. The book has inspired a documentary film 'Freude: A Story of Possibility' where Zander was filmed in the preparation for the concert of Beethoven 9. The makers of the film say that it is "an approach to life that breeds creativity and extends human capacity" - http://freudefilm.com/

 

www.benjaminzander.com

Boston Street Pianos and Conduct Us!

This afternoon saw Danielle and I at the NEC street piano with our public debut of flute and ukulele Brazilian Choro music! Along with the rest of my 'Performing Artists in Community Outreach' class we also jammed along to Somewhere over the Rainbow. Street Pianos is a fantastic art project that involves over 50 pianos, each painted by different artists and placed in various locations throughout Greater Boston. The invitation is simply 'Play Me, I'm Yours'. Why thank you, I think we will...

http://streetpianos.com/boston2013/

Also recently the creative people at an organisation called ImprovEverywhere got a Carnegie Hall Orchestra to get out into the community and public space in another way:

http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/people-conduct-a-world-class-orchestra.html



 

80% of what you teach is who you are

The Sistema Fellows had the great privilege of observing Lorrie Heagy teach this week. She is a trained primary school teacher and pianist, and one of the first class of Fellows. Eric Booth (an El Sistema and teaching artist consultant) holds that the fundamental principle of teaching is that "80% of what you teach is who you are". Lorrie Heagy distills her love for children and passion for teaching into highly thought out lessons packed with purposeful activities, meaningful language and positive behaviour management.

Here is an attempt to summarise how Lorrie has created a curriculum for social change:

• Each lesson involves the 5 ways of engaging the brain for optimal learning - Movement, Curiosity, Emotion, Relevance & Patterns.
• Storytelling combines all 5 ways and is a useful tool to link different activities in a lesson together, and to motivate children to complete potentially uninspiring activities such as developing instrumental techniques and skills.
• Constant praise of positive behaviour.
• Lessons should involve a mix of 'breathe in' and 'breathe out' activities to give a balance of acquiring new information and consolidating skills. 
• Transitions between activities and rituals of coming in and out of the classroom should be made into musical events which flow into the next section of the lesson.
• Activities are broken down into 'levels' of adding more complexity steadily and gradually, and always starting from a point of familiarity. This means that the children experience constant learning successes, are motivated to learn more, and practice the same activity in numerous ways which promotes expertise.

The Western music education ecosystem currently has a dilemma about the identity of music educators. There are private tutors, public school teachers, in-school, out-of-school ensemble directors, full-time and part-time teaching artists - teachers who are first and foremost performers and teachers who are first and foremost educators. I personally hope that this dilemma will be resolved by the presence of quality music education lead by teaching artists within already existing educational institutions. Training programs like the Masters in Teaching Artistry at Longy School of Music, Bard College will create music educators who are skilled in both their teaching and artistic skills, and who have a fundamental place in the educational environment a child experiences. I hope that Music Education policy makers and managers of schools will hold higher expectations of what can be achieved and support teachers to help realise the musical potential of children. Lorrie Heagy shows us that it is possible to be that teaching artist and that the purpose of her profession is to focus on the social and emotional development of the child and the unity of her community.

Find out more about Lorrie Heagy here:
http://blog.tedprize.com/meet-the-sistema-fellows-lorrie-heagy-develops-active-citizenship-through-music-education/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meet-the-sistema-fellows-lorrie-heagy-develops-active-citizenship-through-music-education

http://juneaumusicmatters.blogspot.com/

A microwave and other stories

Prepared for my Storytelling assignment with Tony Woodcock, President of NEC:

A few days after arriving in Boston, I happened to find myself at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. As I walked into the atrium of the main house, I found a courtyard setting that I did not imagine from having seen the outside. An early 1900s façade hid a Roman-inspired courtyard with Gothic windows, topiary and an original mosaic of Medusa. A sense of calm and peace came over me in the face of such a beautiful setting. This helped to ease the emotions I was experiencing after some recent traumatic events.

A few days before, I had been travelling from Tanzania for over forty hours when I finally arrived at 18 Dalrymple St at 9.30 in the evening. I had been assured by my soon-to-be flatmates that the key to the flat would be in an envelope with my name on it in the mailbox. Examining all three mailboxes yielded no mail of any sort, let alone a key. In the true British spirit of ‘Keep calm and carry on’, I went through several options. These included furiously and repeatedly pressing the doorbells to the three apartments in the building. No success. Then I tried trundling my luggage up and down the street to find 7 Dalrymple St where I knew the landlord lived. Myself and several other inhabitants of Dalrymple St were unable to find the location of this phantom house. So I walked back to the T station hoping to phone a taxi who might be able to take me to a hotel or hostel that would let guests check in past ten o’clock. I only had a Tanzanian phone and so had to remember how to use a pay phone, and ordered a taxi that said it would arrive in fifteen minutes. I also phoned the number I had for my soon-to-be flatmate who didn’t answer her phone. I sat outside the T station for about an hour and no taxi showed up. I started to contemplate the relative comforts of sleeping on the front porch or in the bushes by the trash bins.

In the meantime, the lovely lady at the T help desk had come over to see if I was alright. She started off by asking me where I was from. She had heard me order the taxi and thought that I had excellent English. Thanks I said, I’m from the UK. She replied by saying, Do they speak English there? Luckily before I could launch into a detailed linguistic history of the English language, which she obviously needed, a man came over to report something. He told us that he had observed a man coming off the train, dumping a microwave on the wall outside the station, and then going back into the station. Of course, this is suspicious behaviour so the lovely lady at the T had to call the Boston Transport Police.

An awesome policewoman turned up shortly after and examined the microwave which she deemed to be an innocent piece of kitchen equipment after all. She and the lovely lady at the T were discussing this, when the lovely lady at the T told the awesome policewoman about my predicament. The awesome policewoman happened to know a place that was fairly cheap, so she phoned them up and booked a room for me. Check-in closed at midnight and it was already 11.30. So of course the only way I could get there in time was by police escort.

So my first day in Boston was finished by a high speed journey with sirens blaring through downtown Boston to get to the hotel in time. You can imagine what people were thinking when I arrived at this hotel at midnight in a police car – the faces of the other guests in the reception were pretty priceless. They weren’t impressed with my story of having been stranded and then saved by a lovely lady at the T and an awesome policewoman.

I am sure that Isabella Stewart Gardner would have approved of rescuing abandoned stray artists from the streets of Boston, and might have even given me refuge in her Museum, so that I could recover from my ordeal by relaxing by a Roman fountain. This story also shows that many are unaware that dumping microwaves saves lives.