The Simon Bolivar Project

The Simon Bolivar Project in essence is to expand the El Sistema program to reach 1 million students by the year 2019. As noted in various articles (http://nsnbc.me/2013/05/23/venezuela-to-expand-its-el-sistema-music-program/) the project will be funded by the President's Office. 

Roderigo gave us more information about the methods being used to reach the goal of 1 million:

·         El Sistema will continue to lobby community leaders to get permission to start programs, and knock on doors in barrios to invite families to be involved. They receive continued requests from communities as well to have El Sistema work with their children.

·         The program will speed up its de-centralisation process in order to reach the required number of children. Currently audition opportunities, instruments and other resources are difficult to get outside Caracas, and there are not many opportunities to play in Caracas or tour nationally. There needs to be a stronger bridge between the two worlds of El Sistema – the ‘elite’ and ‘rural’ nucleos by supporting and mentoring teachers sent to rural nucleos.

·         El Sistema will build on the government-led Bolivarian school scheme as a way of working with the public schools and including them as part of the project. The school day usually ends at 1pm, but this is extended to 5pm so the schools essentially become nucleos. Parents already pay a lot for childcare during this time so this would also greatly benefit families. The scheme is 6 years old and currently involves art and sports activities. El Sistema was initially consulted by the government because of the organisation’s long experience dealing with large amounts of children in arts activities. There has been Presidential approval for El Sistema to take on this scheme as part of the project along with the access to funding, resources and facilities that are part of the scheme.

·         The program needs to triple the amount of staff (including allowing existing teachers to get certification) and to create foundations to allocate funds. Lots of institutional development needs to occur – there has been much expansion vertically but now El Sistema needs to expand its base to create opportunities for all regardless of location.

·         The Special Needs Department at Barquisimeto aims to create a pilot program in state schools and then replicate the model at other schools.

We heard lots of variance in numbers of how many students are currently in the program and how many each area was aiming to get on board. At some points it sounded like a race to get as many numbers in the program as possible, regardless of the quality of musical engagement. We talked we some nucleo directors about their strategy to reach this goal.

Jesus – Nucleo Director at Merida

Jesus is convinced that the project will be successful due to Dr Abreu’s visionary leadership; “There are those who doubt his huge plans but when you speak to him, he makes them sound plausible, he convinces people as a musician and an economist.” He pointed out the reputation and celebrity surrounding El Sistema, Dudamel and the program’s global renown; “Everyone wants to be part of El Sistema - the real revolution!”  Families are inspired by the achievements of their neighbours and they realise that background isn’t an issue. According to Jesus, this year the whole of El Sistema wants to recruit 120,000 more kids (he thinks a more realistic figure of how many in the program now is 390,000).

Merida’s strategy this year is to extend to six new schools and 6000 more students, which has been made more possible with the new cable car from the town centre to the barrios. It is impossible to expand the existing nucleos as they are already too full, so they will work with the schools first and then open another nucleo. They started in November 2013 with choir and recorders; students share instruments, there is a carousel of classes, and the program also sells violins to students (the cheapest are 5,000 Bolivares).They aim to present these new students’ performances and then get money for orchestral instruments from regional and local governments. Jesus spoke about issues with getting the directors at the state schools on board with the program, but not with the students and their parents. They eventually want to get 20,000 children in the whole state involved.

Victor – Nucleo Director in Ejido, Merida State

Victor worked in the nucleo development office in Caracas. His area goal for 2019 is to expand the number of children served from 487 to 3325. Within four days, they set up 25 small music centres of 1,300 students in the barrios in the area (modulos) with only one teacher for singing, cuatro and theory. An issue is to get motivated teachers for the modulos who are willing to adapt to the school environment and the facilities available. When asked about the pace of the project, he replied; “It’s going quickly because it is working! When a Venezuelan has an idea, you just do it.”

From his experience in Caracas, he told us how the culture of the new students is the most challenging aspect of nucleo development, as they come from very difficult and dangerous backgrounds. He was involved in going from house to house with teachers to invite people to the project. They even talked to the ‘mafia’ about bringing culture to the barrios, and persuaded them to leave the program alone and protect them.

It will be interesting to see how the dynamics of the El Sistema program adapt to working in schools, considering that many Sistema-inspired programs are in-school or after-school programs. The success of this project will undoubtedly continue the program’s ever-increasing global influence.  

Return to Caracas #5

In addition to the stories from Valdemar Rodriguez, we heard many accounts of Dr Abreu from students, teachers and nucleo directors during our time in Venezuela. Many directors knew him very well and for a considerable part of their life, either as a colleague or mentor. Here are some of the stories we heard about this legendary figure before we had the privilege to meet him.

Jesus – Director of the Merida nucleos

Jesus met Dr Abreu when he was 9, and still when he visits him, he always prepares what he will say! During these meetings problems are presented with solutions and advice, and often he will sort out problems straightaway - he knows who to call. He has been inspired by his incredible energy and Significant lessons he  has learnt from Dr Abreu how to protect others and to enjoy the tedious administrative part of his role.

Gary – Nucleo Director at Barquisimeto

Gary was a part of the original Simon Bolivar Orchestra, and attributed his greatest influence and inspiration to Dr Abreu. He admires how he has the ability to work with orchestras of all ages, and inspire such joy in music-making whilst also being very serious!

Roderigo – Deputy Director of International Relations

Roderigo worked with El Sistema for 12 years, and had been working closely with Dr Abreu for 6 years. These are his impressions:

·         He sees himself as a musician first and foremost (he wrote his occupation simply as ‘musician’ on a registration card when going to the doctors in London).

·         He has created a dynamic and flexible organisation which can adapt and change. He delivers on ideas and promises and has even pre-considered ways to deliver, and this increases respect for him.

·         He hates bureaucracy and red tape but instead “lives to see the work get done”. When he is seeking financial support for the program, he presents with musicians and not a strategic plan. He motivates others through passionate speeches and calls on people to reconsider where they are now and what they are doing.

·         Many have felt their lives changed because of El Sistema and by Dr Abreu, and this creates huge motivation in nucleo directors and other staff who work around the clock to serve their communities.

·         There will be no biography or film about Dr Abreu during his lifetime, and he has refused many offers, but instead he asks people to focus on the work and the larger organisation.

·         Despite health problems in recent years and the continuing expansion of the program, he continues to conduct the Caracas Youth Orchestra every day and he has about fifteen conductor pupils.

Roderigo mentioned three main sources of inspiration for Dr Abreu:

1) Growing up in a community of music-making - Dr Abreu was born in a town close to Merida. These towns in the Andes have a strong family tradition and work hard together to promote the artistic growth of children. His grandfather, Anselmis, was a band leader from a city in Italy and apparently the whole town migrated to Venezuela. The band played arrangements of lots of different styles as well as Venezuelan music. Anselmis was the artist of the town and ran all the culture; theatre and small opera productions. Dr Abreu and Roderigo’s family were close and toured with a band in the same area of the Andes. When he later moved to Barquisimeto, he still made regular visits to this cultural world created by his grandparents in the Andes.

2) Devout Jesuit Christian faith – Dr Abreu studied at the Catholic university of Venezuela where he met with the philosophy of doing charity using what you are passionate about, and applying everything you know to help as many people as possible. He was encouraged to do a lot of volunteer work and be faced with realities of social issues. He met priests, politicians, and was particularly inspired by meeting the political author Arturo Uslar Pietri.

3) Doralisa – His piano teacher in Barquisimeto was an immense musical influence on Dr Abreu, in particular how she arranged orchestral works for many pianos so that her students could play together.

Meeting

On our last full day in Venezuela, we had our much-awaited meeting with Dr Abreu. We had prepared and rehearsed together a few minutes each to share our post-fellowship ambitions and how our Venezuela experience had influenced our plans, along with some constructive feedback and observations.

I began with explaining the reasons for my interest in El Sistema. For some time I had been debating the question of how to encourage initiative in students to change their circumstances. My experience with a women’s empowerment program had shown that students had a lack of confidence, little encouragement and few opportunities and resources in Tanzania. I mentioned my own personal experience in choirs; my growth in confidence and joy of being part of a team making a beautiful sound. My experience in Venezuela has shown me how music can be used in a powerful way to build communities and the self-esteem of youth – through positive encouragement, attention, and inclusion. This large family of orchestras and choirs places trust in their youth who become an integral part of the running of the program and effective role models.

Dr Abreu replied by mentioning how he has always had a strong appreciation for African choirs and their exuberance and confident musicality, and he has often thought about an exchange – a symphonic choir month long workshop with concert at end. He has dreamt about starting something in Africa but this should happen at a grass roots level.

At the end of the meeting he encouraged us to keep a record of what the Fellows achieve and what it means for the future of El Sistema in other countries. He also requested that the Fellows write a paper on our observations and thoughts to help the program prepare for 2014 which can be found here.

When we returned from Venezuela, we were given a reception at NEC. We shared some stories and strived to express our experiences in words! Our maestro wordsmith, President Tony Woodcock, managed it by stating that Dr Abreu is one of the great men of our time, and that El Sistema “transforms the way we look at society”.

 

Return to Caracas #4

When we met with the Deputy Executive Director of El Sistema, who is also the Head of the Clarinet Academy, the Latin American Academy, and the Director of the Simon Bolivar Conservatory, we obviously had many questions for him. But he had other ideas, and instead he gave us an interesting two hour-long retelling of his career in El Sistema and early relationship with Dr Abreu:

Valdemar Rodriguez also hails from a village in the Andes mountains where he studied music from the age of 4. His family played in a symphonic band, and his father and his friends were very passionate about and committed to this ensemble. At an early age, he was driven by an anxiety and need to read music. His father eventually taught him to read music, and he constantly listened in and observed rehearsals. Despite wanting to play the trumpet he was given a clarinet to play. He didn’t have anyone his own level to play with, and his aggressive and pushy father made music something to love but also to fear. There was much competition among the families of the town as to who could get their child to join the band first, and alas, Valdemar didn’t progress as much as expected. On one occasion, he stole his clarinet back after his father had hid it in a locker after hearing him play popular music.

When he was 11 years old he became a member of the band at the music school in San Felipe. At this point, El Sistema had a presence in Caracas, Barquisimeto and Maracay, and Valdemar spent many frustrated years trying to become a part of the program. When he was 15 years old, Dr Abreu came to San Felipe and gave a speech to inaugurate a nucleo there. His band leader apparently convinced Dr Abreu that Valdemar could play bass clarinet in the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. However, his parents would not allow the move to Caracas until he had finished high school.

His next encounter with El Sistema was a seminario (a sort of musical holiday camp). 10-15 nucleos already existed, and 40-50 people from each orchestra were involved, including a children’s orchestra of 14-20 years that Valdemar took part in. There were auditions for stand places in the children’s orchestra, and he finished first out of about 40 clarinets. He met many section leaders there who became principals in the Simon Bolivar and some also now lead academies. This experience was a turning point for him - to see how it was possible to be a professional musician.

He joined Valencia University to study electrical engineering, and he became a part of the orchestra and woodwind quintet there. He still got the chance to listen to rehearsals and concerts of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. He remembers that the concert hall was very small with 320 seats but 600 people fitted in. Abreu conducted with a tremendous energy and audience members were moved to tears. Valdemar moved secretly to Caracas. There he became a student of Maestro Rossi from Chile, who became his first long-term teacher. He gradually fixed his embouchure and posture: “That’s the day I stopped engineering and started from scratch”.

The members of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra lived in the same block as him, and he followed them to rehearsals, concerts and after parties, whilst continuing to practise hard. There was no conservatory at that point. Friends helped him get an audition with Dr Abreu who had created an office in a backstage space in the Teatro Teresa Carreno. He gave him a page from the nutcracker suite but it was an A clarinet part and he had never heard this piece of music before! Finally he played some Mozart, whilst Dr Abreu played the orchestra parts on the piano by heart. He was invited to join the orchestra and told to show up the following Monday – he called everyone apart from his father who thought he was still doing engineering in Valencia.

But things had changed by the following week. Dr Abreu was busy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he was distant and Valdemar had to chase him to the theatre. He was told to learn several symphonies and that auditions would be in a month. Valdemar bought recordings and began to study everything on a B flat clarinet transposed to A. He studied in parking lots and friend’s bathrooms! Four months later, he had been fired from the Valencia band, dropped out of university, his savings were gone, and he had no place to live, wandering around Parco Central late in the evening to find someone to crash with. Rossi wrote a letter that he still has faith he could become a great clarinettist which he gave to Dr Abreu on the conducting podium.

Eventually he was unable to stay in Caracas as his parents found out where he was, and so he went back to Valencia, stopped playing, and tried to get back into engineering. He met Maestro Felipe at a festival who was the conductor at the Carora nucleo, and who knew Dr Abreu well. Felipe called Dr Abreu who replied by asking what had happened and that he needed to be ready to play on Monday! Only one of the fifteen clarinettists showed up on the first day so Valdemar became the soloist in the New World Symphony, he found an A clarinet, was given a suit, played in the concert, and was congratulated by Dr Abreu on his solo. Rossi thanked Dr Abreu for reading the letter, but he didn’t know that he was finally in the orchestra because no-one else showed up!

The orchestra had player levels A-G, and the salary was less than half of the Valencia symphonic band. When he was finally an official member of the Simon Bolivar, he was put in at the G level. He had lessons every day and was often given meals by Rossi and Dr Abreu. Once, he went to a music shop with Dr Abreu who bought all the clarinet recordings for him, which wasn’t much.  Gathering confidence, he started teaching his own students in 1981 and joined the conservatory for six years. His teaching career didn’t start well – he had 30 students at the beginning of the year, and 0 at the end. He was now the principle clarinettist of the Simon Bolivar A orchestra but he didn’t feel prepared to teach. He studied sonatas and concertos using recordings as Maestro Rossi had returned to Chile. Dr Abreu would always return from abroad with clarinet scores and recordings, and the Venezuela symphonic orchestra came back from tour with clarinets for him.

Now he commissions festivals and runs academies. Many South American countries had clarinet festivals this year and many of his students now teach. He organises an international clarinet festival every two years. His clarinet academy has 9 teachers and the best students in the country. This model has been replicated for all instruments, giving students opportunities outside of their activities playing with the orchestras, with advanced private instruction and a focus on solo repertoire. A lot of the members of the professional orchestras are members of the conservatory and an academy. The students are chosen and auditioned for soloist performance opportunities.

The academies offer a different learning experience to the conservatory. Students are not attached to one teacher but can study with all if they wish, so they can get the best out of all the teachers. In the traditional conservatory model there is rivalry resulting from little interaction among students, and competition amongst teachers. Students don’t belong to one teacher in this model, but to the academy and El Sistema. Valdemar noted that the teachers relearned respect for one another. The brotherhood among teachers created a very different dynamic, and they take different roles teaching sonatas, orchestra solos, and technique for example. If one is unsure of something, they refer onto another teacher and this collaboration creates the bond that all have responsibility for their students.

As to his impressions of Dr Abreu, Valdemar attributes his success as mentor and leader to his honesty, his captivating public speaking, and the confidence he encourages in his students and colleagues; “It is important to have the children believe in themselves”. Finally he mentioned that Dr Abreu would often get the orchestra to play doubly loud and fast to get them to play better; “He loves us but he is also very demanding!”

 

Special Needs Department in Merida

 
The Special Needs department in Merida is not as big and well-resourced as the one in Barquisimeto, nor is there the same reputation and hype around it, but it was incredibly impressive nonetheless. The students gave us a showcase of their ensembles and their best performances, including recorders, percussion band, hand-bells and violins!

The teachers boasted that “in Barquisimeto the students don’t play the melody but they do here!” The violin work was particularly inspiring. A combined violin, percussion and hand-bell ensemble played a medley of Christmas carols interspersed with a narrative. In order to support the violinists, they had coloured in each note on the scores and used coloured bells to help students play the correct notes. They even moved the bells in the correct bow movements to keep the student on the right note. There was also a young blind boy who was very proficient on the hand-bells. They had built a table so that the bells were fixed in an arc around him.

The advanced percussion ensemble has been playing together for five years. The teacher began working with special needs students so that he could interact more with his son, and he remarked on how rewarding it is to be able to play alongside him. He mentioned that students only need to count to four to participate, and other more capable students can work on fitting rhythms in. There is a focus on improving their ability to concentrate, starting and stopping playing together. Two students are also training to be teachers themselves, and they focus on supporting one child.

Merida has its own White Hands Choir too, although it does not have as many members. The director is training a deaf girl to conduct, and parents are more strongly involved in the choir than in Barquisimeto. Indeed, this nucleo seemed to have stronger relationships with parents than we had seen elsewhere. There is a parent’s choir and a parent’s association - some pay 100 Bolivares a month to contribute, but 80% don’t pay anything to participate and El Sistema even pays for their bus tickets to the nucleo.

Other highlights of our Merida trip included a performance of a Pink Floyd and Beatles medley by the Percussion ensemble, and a trip to hear the Brass ensemble perform at the newly opened cable

car.

 

 

Choirs in Merida

At the main nucleo in Merida, I joined a few rehearsals of the Youth Choir (Coro Sinfonico Juvenil) comprised of students in their late teens and early twenties. The standard was that of a high quality university chamber choir rather than your average youth choir, and I recognised many members who are involved in teaching children’s choirs at the smaller nucleos. Indeed, there is a strong connection with the Universidad de Los Andes Music Department as the director teaches choral conducting there and many of the members of the Youth Choir study there. Members receive a stipend for their commitment, and as with the choirs in Barquisimeto, two students led warm-ups in their roles as vocal coaches.

I enjoyed the challenge of sight-reading traditional Venezuelan carols, and already some seemed more than familiar having heard them being sung in other nucleos or in shops, etc. There were so many strong singers around me that I quickly picked up the songs, and the accompanying swaying movements usually started by the tenors! It was an absolute delight being conducted by someone as passionate and inspiring as Argenis, and soon other Fellows came to watch the rehearsals. They especially came to see how he mentored members of the choir as conductors; in one rehearsal he was providing feedback to two girls and two guys as they conducted familiar repertoire. He later commented to us on the importance of training conductors within the ensemble. For example, he said directors must conduct at the eye sight of younger children so they are not only directed but can also be learning how to be conductors.

I was also lucky enough to sing with the choir around the town. This experience showed their ease with performing in different spaces, and interacting with their audience. It seems that Argenis is very much involved in the community, and had arranged concerts in the park and at the shopping centre, and the choir has been to many other settings. The students who are training to be conductors performed their pieces, and the audience and passers-by were encouraged to join in with the well-known Christmas carols.

Although Argenis is teaching at the nucleo, he is not a member of staff there and is affiliated instead with the local university. Clara and I were keen to talk with him about conducting, having been so inspired by watching him work in rehearsals. He made some interesting comments on his experiences working with musicians in El Sistema. He especially mentioned that he has not heard teachers talk about the meaning of the music much; "just play, play, play and an insistence on technique". He is not so keen to sing in Caracas with the other choirs as they do not provide singers with the space to reflect on the meanings of the piece, with vocal technique and sound being more important. "We should look at the fundamental thing being communicated", he explained, "the choir conductor should be a good musician but also a mentor or a priest". We didn’t have the time to really connect with choirs in the Caracas nucleos (they were more anxious to show off the orchestras), and it seems like students interested in focusing on singing in Caracas become a part of one of the Schola Cantorum choirs, compared to the choir cultures we saw in Barquisimeto and Merida.

Merida #5

Santa Cruz

After some time winding through hairy mountain roads, we came to the relatively isolated village of Santa Cruz. From the road we could see a fabulous mural painted along the front of the eight year old nucleo. There is a small staff here including a director and secretary. They have one orchestra of children aged 7-17 years, and students had been playing their instrument for 6 months to 2 years. 250 students attend this nucleo altogether, with a piano studio, orchestra, choir, and early years classes.

We met one of the few non-Venezuelan teachers and one of the few more permanent visitors to the program here. Kyoko Kato from South Korea (KOICA/JICA) is working with the Universidad de Los Andes to help train teachers from village nucleos at the centre of town. She talked to us about the frustrations of feeling far from the main Merida nucleo; the musical culture there, the resources and much larger teaching staff.

Although it was a Friday morning, there were many students at the nucleo. Apparently they had been told that there would be guests and had been excused from school. The full orchestra was set up to welcome us and played Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. The children then split up into groups and the Fellows joined them to teach for the rest of the morning.

Beverley and I went with the 6 cellists ranging in age from 7 to late teens; Osiris, Crismar, Wilmer, Ariam, Oriana and Darkis. After a few warm-ups it became obvious that the two youngest players also had the least experience and so I took them to another room to go through the part for Ode to Joy. Crismar had played for 9 months, Osiris for less. We worked for about 30 minutes on this part, when the seven-year old Osiris lost interest and was very concerned about the possibility of missing lunchtime. It felt bizarre to see an El Sistema student lose focus!

After lunch I did some work with the children’s choir, a small group of seven to ten year olds. Again this was a very different experience to the well-disciplined choirs we had visited elsewhere. We played a few warm-up and rhythm games, and I taught them a simple Tanzanian children’s song. Concentration levels were pretty low and I often had to coax students away from whatever distractions there were in the room. One of these distractions was a piano where one of the boys sat down to play and was joined in by the others singing along. It made me think that, with a lack of teaching staff, the students were probably quite used to just hanging out around the piano.

The director of the nucleo gave us some background about the village (population around 1000). A few years ago severe flooding destroyed much of the infrastructure; housing, roads, electricity and quality water supply were affected and there are still many issues which are not getting resolved. We noticed that there was no running water in the kitchen and bathrooms at the nucleo. As a result, according to the director, there is a negative atmosphere in the village. Public school teachers are often ‘not well’ or ‘going to the doctor’, and the nucleo is treated as a babysitting service by families, where discipline has got worse.

I got the impression that life in this village for the students was more unsettling than in other communities we visited. It is more of a challenge to maintain discipline and routine when children are not exposed to it elsewhere in family and school life. Despite its eight years, it appears that the El Sistema culture that we were becoming familiar with is not established here as much as at other nucleos. This sort of situation and the distance from the Merida town centre is an example of the challenges of taking the program to the villages as part of the Simon Bolivar project.