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!”
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