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'