Merida #4

Ejido

This nucleo is close to Merida town centre, is 4 years old and based in a cultural centre with a stunning mountainous backdrop. We were met by 28 year-old Victor who is the director here and took us on a tour. There are 487 students, of whom 78 are aged 4-6 years. Three times a week students have theory or individual lessons, whilst the orchestra rehearses twice a week in the courtyard. Victor has four admin staff to help run the nucleo.

Various lessons were taking place in different parts of the courtyard. We stopped first at the cuatro ensemble which is part of the Alma Llanera project. 35 children are part of the project in Ejido with 15 being in the ensemble which was started a year half ago. The students gave us an impromptu performance. Afterwards, Ayriole decided to forego the rest of the tour and got some of the students to teach her some chords, which we will all keen to learn from her on the bus trip back to Caracas.

Next was the paper orchestra. We were not there at the right time to observe a rehearsal but instead we saw parents making the instruments and discussed the process: draw around a real instrument to create templates using card, cardboard, and newspaper. Wooden posts are glued inside to help keep the shape, fibres from palm leaves are used for bow hairs, and nylon fishing lines for strings. It takes four months to make it all, and the children learn songs using their instrument in the meantime twice a week in kindergarten classes (4-6 years). Here in Ejido it is obligatory for parents to help make the instrument. There are new kids every four months. Once it is finished, there is an exhibition and a concert with the paper instruments.

Kindermusik: We visited one classroom where a teacher demonstrated some of the activities they do with the younger children - introducing rhythm concepts with body movements in a train game when you walk in different tempo, jump for an accent, stop for rests. They also talked about observing chn to see which instrument they could be most suited too. It was so refreshing again to hear teachers believe in the potential of children being able to play an instrument and that they should give them the opportunity to do so.

After the tour, we heard the story of Victor's journey to becoming a nucleo director at such a young age: “This is our fight” he began by saying. He was a student in El Sistema from the age of 4 to19 years old: he spent 11 years in the National Childrens’ Orchestra (now the Simon Bolivar B Orchestra) as a violist, toured Brazil, Argentinia, Chile, Europe and the US. When the tours were over he stayed in Caracas to continue rehearsing and performing with the orchestra. At the same time he trained as a nutritionalist and a specialist in food processing. He subsequently worked in the nucleo development office for FundaMusical and worked around the country. He finished there in January 2013 after he was asked to come to Merida as part of the Simon Bolivar project, and he became the director of the Ejido nucleo in May.

When asked about how the Simon Bolivar project could be successful, he explained that children join the program because of their curiosity about the musical instruments. They are also drawn to the experience of a different atmosphere at the nucleo than at home. An important role of the nucleo is to provide social support. He mentioned some cases that he had encountered: One student was consistently late for rehearsals and wasn’t allowed back into the orchestra. It turned out that she was late because of domestic issues as her parents didn’t believe she was actually playing but sleeping around. In the end her mother saw her perform at the concert and was amazed by the ability of her own child. Victor's storytelling was so powerful that we were all very moved and Tatjana was emotional whilst translating for us.

He went on to say that El Sistema is changing the lives of children and parents, and he knows that the program is changing hearts successfully because the teachers who have been through the program have all been repaired: "When you feel the power of what you can do with your own hands, you want to do more". The teacher’s purpose is to be a model so the students want to be like you, and this motivates them to behave well; “If they don’t make you feel great they are teaching you nothing” he says. Another piece of advice: "If chn don’t look at you with shining eyes – you’re not doing it right. The students should play with a big heart but having future aspirations of a musical career is not as important. " They must be in general education, however, the program helps place children in school.

Victor could still be playing for the Simon Bolivar Orchestra but he decided to serve others and is now impacting 3000 children, continuing the cycle of teaching others and giving back. His studies in other disciplines have helped him develop organisational abilities, but he ended by bemoaning the fact that El Sistema is the biggest system of music education in the world but you can’t access higher education music studies. It occurred to me that in my experience it is easier to access quality music education at the higher education level than at primary or secondary level in the UK!