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!

 

Return to Caracas #3

After we had finished quizzing the team from the Executive Director's Office, they asked us what our impressions were of El Sistema after three weeks of observing and engaging with the program. Unfortunately I didn't record what I said but it was probably something about teacher training considering that it was my particular obsession at the time. Or maybe praxis...

Ricki: The positive environment - always open to help each other, not to laugh at each other.

Tatjana: There is a need for more integration of Venezuelan music in the program - for example arranging their own music in the nucleo or producing national editions by Fundamusical to that can be made digitally available.

Aubree: The teachers specifically working on bringing passion out of children.

Beverly: The constant innovation and openness to new methods of teaching - teachers often in situations when they need to think outside the box e.g. teaching different levels and instruments.

Frosty: The passion for music creates the motivation to work hard - This is diminished when they are told they can’t do something or teachers overly focus on posture for example. Instead teachers empower students and encourage a relationship with instruments. She was also impressed with Argenis, the director of the Merida Youth Choir training members of choir to conduct.

Hana: Struck by the loud, fast, almost aggressive sound in beginner playing, whereas the more advanced students are more refined and sensitive in their musical expression.

Eriel: The students simply love playing with others, and the social, family experience at the nucleo becomes a huge part of their life. Talent is not a factor or a working concept as teachers believe all can achieve but need to be supported differently.

Roderigo: The students are almost addicted to achievement, and realise that with support you can constantly achieve and seek the challenge of the next step.

Return to Caracas #2

Back at the Centre for Social Action we met up with members of Eduardo Mendez’s team. The Executive Director’s office develops curriculum and music projects. We met with four members of management who are preparing a strategy for developing higher education, and evaluation and assessment in El Sistema. Those we talked to included the Head co-ordinator of projects undertaken by the Executive Director’s office, a statistician and an economist. One of them also was a violinist in the Simon Bolivar. They are part of work groups focusing on updating sequential repertoire and creating new academies and conservatories. Ironically their goal is the systemisation of El Sistema’s programming. They intend to equip a new generation of researchers who will continue to expand and develop the program.

Data Collection

The main objective of this project is to measure the impact of the El Sistema program in Venezuela. They started measuring in 2006/7 but a system wasn’t put in place to organise the data. This has been a very expensive process, there is 39 years’ worth of programming to consider! There have been previous external data collection and evaluations including one compiled by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2007. They also mentioned research published in 2006 (by Jose Fuerte) and also a cost-benefit analysis (a different report to the IDB analysis) showing that the program gives $1.36 back for every $1 invested.

Their aims are:

1) To measure the social and individual impact of the program on children, parents, teachers, and administrative staff through various indicators including self-esteem, psychology, hygiene and health.

2) To record the socio-economic status of children’s families.

The pilot process is expected to finish in 2015: the first study will take place in 4 nucleos, assessment tools and a schedule will be established, and then it will be reproduced on a national level in 2018 with the aim that data collection will be continued. They will be able to see the impact on the development of students after consistent analysis. The data collection process will include questioning all children of all ages and their parents (e.g. income and education background), measuring cognitive skills and reasoning, causal impact, social and individual impact. The research team will be in each nucleo for two weeks collecting data of the current students.

The team mentioned some of the problems that they are facing: Determining what should be the baselines that are they looking for, the lack of internet access in many areas to digitally process data, and how to differentiate the impact of El Sistema from other social programs the students may participate in.

University Institute of Music Studies

The evaluation process will also be designed to inform what will be needed when students reach higher education, so the children selected for the pilot assessment will be those who have experienced as many aspects of the program as possible. The data will be used to create a curriculum to support the existing programs. A higher education institute was created by Dr Abreu in the ‘80s, but it is now that a huge development is under way to use the institute to fill in the gaps in the program.

The team mentioned that other higher education providers in Venezuela are not completely coherent with the philosophy of El Sistema programming. They do however work with the Simon Bolivar Conservatory which is already well established in delivering performance studies, but they wish to use the El Sistema institute to extend educational offerings to students. In this way, they are not so concerned about providing more performance opportunities, concerts, tours, master-classes, etc.

They did mention, however, that there has been some controversy in taking students away from other universities, but there are few universities in Venezuela that offer music studies in further education. Students end up choosing other disciplines although this does have the outcome of graduates having the opportunity to work in other areas and then return to El Sistema with a wider skills base. Providing more opportunities for gaining a Higher Education qualification legitimises a musical career and the music industry, and prevents the brain drain of students going abroad. By having complimentary tracks in teaching and performance students are able to take their own direction in their studies and career choice.

One aspect that appealed to me is the interdisciplinary nature of the courses they wish to offer. They describe the pilot program of music theory, history and composition courses as being holistic and integrated and the curriculum design will aim to present everything as part of the same learning. Perhaps they will link these studies with El Sistema favourites Tchaikovsky’s 4^th and Shostakovich’s 10^th symphonies – the passion for the music is already there having experienced it, and therefore the motivation to learn about them from different angles.

Teacher Training

This is one crucial aspect of programming that doesn’t formally exist yet in El Sistema. The team is working on three strategies to rectify this.

1) Certify teachers who already work in the dynamic of El Sistema, who have been trained by following the example of others in the nucleo and by years of experience. It is hoped that these teachers will be more motivated to continue teaching with the recognition of their skills. Given the huge development of the program that is needed in the next few years under the Simon Bolivar project, there is a huge demand for teachers and they require certification. They have already tried to certify their teachers through other institutions, but now the program needs to be able to certify their own teachers in order to achieve the goals of the project.

2) Develop a teacher training program to compliment the experience gained in the nucleo. This program will address weaknesses and gaps such as assessment and evaluation, teaching methodologies and knowledge, but will not necessarily be completely theoretical. They aim to offer elective courses so students can pick and chose those that are relevant, and to remove the preconception that everyone should teach how they themselves learnt, by introducing new pedagogical methods. The courses will also try to cater for all the musical interests that are reflected in the program, from orchestras and choirs to symphonic rock bands and special needs programming. Their vision is to attract international students to their Inter-American Teacher Training Facility, where the quality of teacher training offered matches the level of performance training that creates the professional musicians of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra.

3) El Sistema has pioneered methods of teaching music to Special Needs students. There is a need for research into the teaching methodologies being used along with collecting teacher and student profiles to assess the program. They intend to gather what is already happening and make it accessible to others, with a view to eventually establishing a national Teacher Training Centre specifically for Special Needs.

Curriculum development

Sequential repertoire documents were created for standardising repertoire in 2010 which has been an important baseline for orchestras and choirs in every nucleo. It is used as a non-mandatory guideline, but the evolution of the program has surpassed the repertoire standards, and expectations are changing constantly as many students are playing repertoire from the next level up. They plan to update these documents to reflect the reality of student progress, whilst not voiding achievements of previous students. In addition they aim to analyse the progress of the new generation of students to inform future curriculum developments.

We wondered whether the program might lose something of its essence in this systemisation and institutionalisation. The team replied by saying that as they have been brought up in El Sistema, it would be hard for them to develop a different approach to music education. These developments that will be based on research and evaluation of what students need will inevitably change our perconceptions of music education at the higher level.

Return to Caracas #1

Our beloved tequenos at the Tamanaco Hotel, Caracas

We returned to Caracas for our final week in Venezuela. We were hoping to meet with members of El Sistema senior management, members of the team responsible for research, evaluation, and formulating a plan for a new higher education institution, whilst also visiting the Simon Bolivar Conservatory. Unfortunately, as it was the week of municipal elections, the nucleos and the conservatory were closed (luckily we didn’t miss out as much as the last class of Fellows when Chavez died).

There are 250 staff (all Venezuelan) working at the head office of the Foundacion which runs El Sistema. We were able to meet with three out of the five members of senior management – Eduardo Mendez (Executive Director ), Valdemar Rodriguez (Deputy Executive Director) and, to our great delight, Dr. Abreu (Founding Director).

l to r: Tony Woodcock, Dr. Abreu, Leslie Wu Foley, Eduardo Mendez

First was the unassuming and utterly inspiring Eduardo Mendez. Eduardo grew up as a violinist in El Sistema, and is now head of the administration and management side of the program. He is one of the few who receives a lot of personal time and assistance from Dr. Abreu. For the first time we made our way to the buildings of the Fundamusical. He talked to us for about an hour, giving us more of an overview of the program and its goals rather than the details of how each nucleo operates that we had been concerned with so far doing our visits. Out of his discussion came three main themes of how he sees El Sistema: a different methodology, breaking boundaries and the importance of the El Sistema family.

A different, but not necessarily better methodology

Eduardo echoed many voices we heard that emphasised that El Sistema is not a musical ‘miracle’ but a result of many people working hard to serve the students together. He asked us to imagine how many teachers/hours/instruments would be needed to teach every child in the nucleo in the traditional Western methodology; “We would still be working on generation one!”

It was interesting to hear his summary of how El Sistema works: The program is based on collective teaching where private lessons do happen. This makes the process of teaching simpler but more time-consuming – students obviously progress more in four months with four hours of teaching a day than they would in one year. Teachers surround the students all the time, so they can feel that they are getting better every day and progressing quicker. In addition they are not getting bad habits at home that have to be dealt with, the students are motivated by participating in concerts on Saturdays and they experience the pride of their parents seeing them in uniform and receiving applause for their work. He also talked about taking advantage of the pace at which children can learn when they are young – he pointed out how a nine month old can learn how to use an IPad, and how that potential can lead to a performance of 7-12 year olds in the National Children’s Orchestra in Salzburg! (Eduardo was 17 when he played Mahler 1 to audition for the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, now it is used for preparation for National Children’s Orchestra.)

“We achieve precise, clear and direct objectives, using passion, motivation and methodology.” His challenge is to break down this passion and joy to the ground and make it work like a business, so that they can be as efficient as possible with the resources they have, serve as many children as possible and continue to serve the community with up to five concerts a week (in Caracas).

El Sistema applies and replicates its own methodology to facilitate the growth of the program and see more children served, but he pointed out the different motivations behind this to the way that Europe, North America and Asia see the nurturing of musicians; the major difference being the dual focus of community-building as well as the development of young musicians.

“We are here to provide opportunities for everyone, students and the audience who will become your allies for funds and networks. Communities are then built surrounding a common objective. Our objective is not to produce professional musicians, but our goals are to serve the needs of children and youth through music. We seek to get the most amount of children in the project – this is when we are helping to create a new human being. We still have a lot to learn as a community builder but all skills can be applied to help others. We are creating a new concept or ecology. The challenge is convincing the world that it is not better but different. A great example is that the very traditional New England Conservatory wants you to be here!”

Breaking barriers

Another striking feature of El Sistema is the focus on pushing boundaries – the sheer amount of students involved, the number of concerts occurring every week, the inclusion we have seen in the Special Needs programming and above all the expectations of what the students are capable of. The best example of this is the 1500 El Sistema students performing at the Salzburg Festival for three weeks; five programs of non-professionals performing as professionals at the highest level possible, and all the tickets were sold out six months before.

Of course the Simon Bolivar project will be continuing the massive expansion of the program, and Eduardo is instrumental in decisions determining how many more children are added to the program each month and in which city, the taking over of schools and community spaces, and expanding existing nucleos (although on our visits many seem to be already at bursting point with long waiting lists!)

El Sistema is now breaking the boundaries of the Venezuelan borders and inspiring many programs globally. Eduardo remarked that in 1975 Dr. Abreu told his students that their orchestra would take over the country with music and the world will look to Venezuela and want to imitate you. This prophecy is coming true, and following in this quasi-religious perspective, Eduardo stated that the work will be finished when all countries can do this work.

The Family

The sense of responsibility for the students and their well-being was a very common theme from the teachers and El Sistema leaders; “The program is the closest thing children have to family, they call the nucleo director or teacher when something is wrong”. In this way, strong emotional connections are created and the students become an integral part of El Sistema and how it functions: “they identify themselves with the program as they achieve results, human results and feel transformed as they enter the orchestra or nucleo – the principle objective of all this.”

Finally, Eduardo’s message to the Sistema Fellows – “You are part of the network, our achievements you should take and build on and vice versa; we are a group. This is free and you should feel part of the El Sistema family. Transmit this to all you will work with. Always believe in what you saw in Venezuela.”

 

Merida #3

Fe Y Alegria

Fe y Alegria (Hope and Joy) school is in a stunning location up in the mountains outside Merida. There are 500 children in this nucleo in a relatively poor area, and this nucleo is a rare example in El Sistema of an in-school program, in this case at a Catholic school (kindergarten until 6^th grade). The wife of Jésus Perez is the director here. She explained that the students come from different socio-economic backgrounds, and that it is a cheap and accessible school for families in the mountains.

Currently, every student participates in music lessons once a week which includes two hours of private lessons and choir in the morning, two hours of ensembles and orchestra in the afternoon. In addition there are music theory classes. There is a core group of teachers which is supported by additional staff in the afternoon.

There was a similar project in the area at another Catholic boarding school, run by a nun who is a friend of Dr. Abreu. She asked for the program to be set up at the school, but it only existed for five years before being moved to Fe Y Alegria. Other clubs and distractions lead to low student retention and interest. It was not often that we heard of a failed nucleo in our visit to Venezuela. There are still opportunities to participate in music activities at the school as "El Sistema doesn’t ever close its doors on students". They were at the old school for two years without instruments - teaching choir, music theory and sharing twelve recorders! It has been  six months only since the move to the new site, which provides more space and offers less additional activities.

We could hear students practicing constantly whilst we were talking during the school morning break. It turned out that they were preparing for an audition that day to perform in an upcoming presentation. Auditions had to be held as there weren't enough instruments for everyone to participate. They were also going to starting the children’s and youth choir that very day. Again we heard the Merida Maxim of 'listening and experiencing before theory' as they talked about setting up the new project at the school. 

We enjoyed taking a tour of the school and engaged some classes in the orchestra song Tatjana had taught us, whilst for the younger kids we performed Tucheze Tanzania!