Collaborative Creativity
The
Take A Stand conference led me to think about how El Sistema-inspired programs
can foster opportunities for collaborative creative projects that deal with
social issues.
Guy
Raz started off the symposium by reminding us of artistic works that were
catalysts for, or highlighted, a change in society, for example Picasso’s 'Guernica'.
This work was a new creation that pushed the boundaries of
existing artistic forms and styles. Leon Botstein followed this by emphasising
that music is a participatory act that is invented and re-invented – new creations
as a result of a collaborative process.
Robert Duke then spoke about the fundamental purpose of music being to convey
something to other human beings, and in the case of the El Sistema-inspired movement, we seek
to communicate some very powerful messages
about social issues.
I encountered
a great example of how this can be achieved. The Creative Connections workshop
led by Dan Trahey (Orchkids program in Baltimore) demonstrated how a large
group of people of different abilities can easily collaborate in fun
compositional activities. This one-hour session gave plenty of freedom for
participants to use musical ideas from a variety of styles and
backgrounds. Four small groups were created to easily contribute ideas
which were put together to form a composition; Joe Hamm used his background in
percussion to suggest a rhythm that selected individuals could improvise
over, and a YOLA student gave Trahey the
'Boom-shak-a-lak-a' call and response introduction. In addition, a
participant of previous Creative Connections sessions described to me
how longer workshops can operate around a social theme as a focus for
ideas.
These experiences left me questioning how El Sistema-inspired programs could consider ways in which communities can be
built and strengthened, by using collaborative creative projects that seek to
promote awareness of social issues. 
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