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.