El Sistema
El Sistema (which translates to The System) is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu.[1] It later adopted the motto "Music for Social Change." El Sistema-inspired programs provide what the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies describes as "free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children."[2] El Sistema has inspired similar programmes in more than 60 other countries.[3] By 2015, according to official figures, El Sistema included more than 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The original program in Venezuela involves four after-school hours of musical training and rehearsal each week, plus additional work on the weekends.[1]
Formation
The institution's closeness to the government has caused the perception that the institution and conductor Gustavo Dudamel serve as propaganda instruments of Maduro's government.[3] Several musicians of El Sistema participated in the antigovernment 2017 protests, and in response many were detained, tortured or killed.[4][5][6]
Atlanta Music Project (, Georgia) is sponsored by major companies and foundations of the city. It is managed by two Sistema Fellows, graduates of the 2010 and 2012 Program at the New England Conservatory of Music. The Atlanta Music Project offers both an orchestral and a choral music program.[45]
Atlanta
Austin Soundwaves () was founded in 2011 by Sistema Fellow and executive director, Patrick Slevin, focusing on the artistically underserved community of east Austin. Programming takes place primarily in-school with a variety of offerings, including concert band, string orchestra, philharmonic orchestra chamber music, and mariachi.[46]
Austin, Texas
Boston String Academy (Boston, Massachusetts) founded in 2012 by Taide Preito, Marielisa Alverez, and Mariesther Alverez, Boston String Academy is a El Sistema-based program. The founders started their journey through El Sistema in Venezuela. Previously working at Kids 4 Harmony, they were inspired to start an El Sistema inspired program in Boston. BSA offers three programs, those being in Chinatown and Allston neighborhoods, serving more than 120 students.
B Sharp Youth Music Program () is a free extended-day music program founded in 2010 at Como Elementary, funded by The Goff Family Foundation in partnership with the Fort Worth Independent School District. As the Fort Worth ISD's only elementary orchestra and the only El Sistema-inspired music program in North Texas, B Sharp fosters positive youth development through ensemble-based music instruction, peer-to-peer teaching, emphasis on group music-making, life skills training and the social aspect of learning music.
Fort Worth, Texas
BRAVO Youth Orchestras () began in 2013. BRAVO is an independent non-profit organization. While it is independent it relies on partnerships to be able to provide vocal and instrumental classes. It partners with Portland Public Schools to provide in-school music classes; then partners with SUN and Boys & Girls Club for its after-school programs.
Portland, Oregon
Chicago Metamorphosis Orchestra Project (ChiMOP) (, Illinois)[47] was founded in May 2013 by Thomas Madeja and Sylvia Carlson. Its first program, the ChiMOP Summer Youth Orchestra, is an advanced youth orchestra that is designed to bridge the gap between academic year programs. ChiMOP's second program, Mary Lyon Music, is an El Sistema inspired program that takes place at Mary Lyon Elementary School[48] in Chicago's Belmont Cragin neighborhood and was launched in September 2013.
Chicago
El Sistema Lehigh Valley (ESLV) ()[49] was founded in 2011 as a free music education program through the Allentown Symphony Association. Since starting with less than 70 students on paper instruments, the program has expanded to provide orchestral and choir instruction to more than 100 students from the elementary to high school level.
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Harmony Program () was one of the first El Sistema-inspired programs in the US. It began as a pilot program in the New York City Mayor's Office in 2003. After being incorporated as an independent non-profit, the Harmony Program was re-launched under its current model in 2008 through a partnership with the City University of New York. The program was founded by Anne Fitzgibbon, who studied El Sistema in Venezuela on a year-long Fulbright Fellowship.[50][51][52]
New York City
Kids 4 Harmony () was launched in 2012 by Berkshire Children and Families, a social services organization and is based at the Morningside School in Pittsfield. The Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, Boston Conservatory, and Longy School of Music have supported the program with periodic tutoring and public fundraising performances. Another branch of the program is located in (North Adams, Massachusetts).
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Kidznotes () was launched in 2009 by co-founders Katie Wyatt and Lucia Powe. Kidznotes offers orchestra and band for students in grades K–12 in an out-of-school setting. Currently, they serve over 100 students mostly from Title I qualifying schools in the Durham Public Schools system.[53]
North Carolina
Miami Music Project (, Florida)[54] was founded in 2008 by James Judd with chapters in Doral, Little Haiti, and Liberty City.
Miami
MYCincinnati (, Ohio)[55] is a free youth orchestra program. It was founded in October 2011 by a graduate of the second class of Sistema Fellows at New England Conservatory. The program has a full string orchestra of over 70 students who meet for two hours a day, five days a week. In addition, the program added winds in 2017.
Cincinnati
Orchestrating Diversity () was founded in 2009 by Mark Sarich, Max Woods and Jesse Windels as a free music program for inner-city youth based at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Orchestrating Diversity offers an intensive eight-week summer program as well as after-school classes throughout the school year, teaching students college-level music theory, history, and musicianship. Students also perform symphonic music as an ensemble, and are given private instruction on their instruments from professional musicians, college faculty members, and student volunteers from nearby universities.[56]
Saint Louis, Missouri
OrchKids (, Maryland) is an after-school program at the Luckerman Bundy Elementary School which brings "intensive music education to very young children" one of its distinctive features[57] According to Nick Skinner, director of operations for OrchKids, it concentrates on both the musical and the social: "(the children) learn that being an OrchKid means behaving in a certain way".[58] The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is involved in the program and its conductor, Marin Alsop, conducts concerts with the young group.
Baltimore
Paterson Music Project () is an El Sistema-inspired after-school program initiated by the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts. PMP began at the Community Charter School of Paterson in January 2013 and has expanded to two Paterson public schools. In 2016, PMP launched a Saturday Community Arts Program to serve the broader Paterson community with a community orchestra and intergenerational choir.[59]
Paterson, New Jersey
People's Music School Youth Orchestras (Chicago, Illinois) (formerly known as the YOURS Project) was founded in 2008 as the first El Sistema-inspired program in Chicago. Using donated instruments and makeshift accessories, the Youth Orchestra began with 35 students and grew to serve over 135 students annually by 2014. The first in its network of youth orchestras is located at the William G. Hibbard Elementary School in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood.
[60]
Pinecrest City Music Project (PCMP) ()[61] Founded by current Brown University student Daniel Solomon, PCMP is an El Sistema-inspired arts education program that educates public school students to become holistic arts leaders, both in and outside the classroom. With 502 students and 31 student-staff, PCMP operates, funds, and instructs 8 weekly arts education programs, and organizes 3 annual large-scale public arts initiatives, free-of-charge. PCMP is the first student-led nonprofit grants recipient of Miami-Dade County, State of Florida, and the only student-run instructional contractor to the Miami-Dade School Board. PCMP is driven by the principle that every child should have access to a high-quality music education that not only encourages them as musicians, but utilizes the arts as a vehicle for social change.
Miami, Florida
Play on Philly! (POP) ()[62] started in 2011 with 110 underserved children (grades 1 to 8) in St. Francis de Sales, a West Philadelphia school. Another site at the Freire Charter Middle School, established in September 2010, brought the total number of students to close to 250. In addition to group instrumental lessons children study composition, general music, choir, chamber and ensemble music. POP employs 31 teaching artists. A major part of the program is a series of 30 concerts in the community throughout the year as well as visits from guest artists and conductors.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Q the Music ()[63][64] was founded in September 2012 through the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. The program serves around 70 students in Grades 3 through 6 at Ruskin Elementary, a Dayton Public School.
Dayton, Ohio
Shift: Englewood Youth Orchestra (Chicago, Illinois) was founded in July 2014 by Larry Gerber, Ayriole Frost and Albert Oppenheimer. It serves children grades 3 through 8 in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, and takes place at Wentworth Elementary School.[66]
[65]
Soundscapes () was founded in 2009 and opened its first nucleo at Carver Elementary. In 2012 the program opened its second nucleo at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center.[67]
Newport News, Virginia
UpBeat NYC () was established in 2009.[68] It is a free community music program in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. Its activities include an orchestra program for ages 8 and up providing lessons, sectionals, and ensemble rehearsals, a beginner violin orchestra that transitions children from paper orchestra to real instruments and prepares students for the orchestra program, and a pre-orchestra program for ages 5–7 that implements Kodály methodology and a paper orchestra curriculum.
Bronx, New York
Union City Music Project (UCMP) () is the first El Sistema program in the New Jersey. The UCMP launched operations in March 2012 through a Paper Orchestra. It has support from volunteer parents but all teaching artists are paid.[69]
Union City, New Jersey
WHIN Music Project ()[70] was founded by El Sistema Fellow David Gracia in August 2012. WHIN offers string orchestra and choir, early childhood music classes, as well as satellite programs in schools and daycare centers. Students receive masterclasses as well as opportunities to peer mentor.
Washington Heights-Inwood, New York
Yakima Music en Acción (YAMA) ()[71] was founded by Sistema Fellow Stephanie Hsu in 2013 and currently serves 68 at-promise children at Garfield Elementary School in the Yakima Valley, ages 8 to 14. YAMA functions as an active community partnership between the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, the Yakima School District, and a robust group of involved parents.
Yakima, Washington
(Los Angeles, California) is a partnership between the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Harmony Project, EXPO Center, a City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks facility, Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). The orchestra receives artistic direction from the Los Angeles Philharmonic via conductor Juan Felipe Molano and LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, who has led the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In the Super Bowl 50 halftime show the YOLA directed by Dudamel joined the members of Coldplay to perform "Viva la Vida", "Paradise", and "Adventure of a Lifetime". With the support of Yola, Global Arts has a similar mission of El Sistema, but strives to take it one step further by providing the same developmental and nurturing environment for educators as well as students with host classes and workshops for families and community members. Global Arts serves in the Pico Union District of Los Angeles and eventually expand to neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and throughout the US and other countries.
YOLA (Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles)
YOLA National Festival (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles National Festival) () Previously known as National Take a Stand Festival, YOLA National Festival is an intensive summer learning program for the top-tier musicians aged 12–18 of El Sistema in America, the program has an acceptance rate of less than twenty percent. Student musicians of this program perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall with Gustavo Dudamel for their annual performance.YOLA National Festival is provided free of cost covering air-travel, boarding, instruction, etc. The Los Angeles Philharmonic funds the program. In October 2021, YOLA opened its own music hall: The Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, designed by architect Frank Gehry.
Los Angeles, California
YOSA (Youth Orchestra of San Antonio) (, Texas) is located in the "Good Sam" Community Services Center in West San Antonio and run by an expatriate Briton, Steven Payne. YOSA has five orchestras and 450 students. It also has the financial support of a local businessman, Al Silva, a man of Mexican heritage who grew up the area.[72]
San Antonio
Young Musician Initiative (YMI) () is a youth outreach arm of the New Mexico Philharmonic, and is run by Matt Hart. Begun in January 2013, YMI offers instrumental and choral education to K-7th grade students in select Title 1 schools in Albuquerque.[73]
Albuquerque, New Mexico
International recognition of El Sistema[edit]
The Glenn Gould Prize was awarded to
El Sistema founder José Antonio Abreu on 14 February 2008.[104][105] Brian Levine, managing director of the Glenn Gould Foundation, in an account of his 2008 visit to Caracas wrote: "El Sistema has demonstrated conclusively that music education is the gateway to lifelong learning and a better future."
The Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts was awarded to El Sistema on 28 May 2008.[106]
The National Performing Arts Convention 2008, held in Denver, Colorado, featured Abreu as a guest speaker on 13 June 2008.[107]
The TED Prize was awarded to José Antonio Abreu on 5 February 2009 for his work on El Sistema. A pre-recorded speech was played at the ceremony in which he explained his philosophy.[108] The prize allowed for the creation of the Abreu Fellows.
The Polar Music Prize from Sweden was awarded to El Sistema and Maestro Abreu in 2009.
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame awarded Abreu the Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America on 22 September 2014.[109]
The Institute of Education, University of London awarded Abreu an honorary degree in 2013
Tocar y Luchar (Play and Fight), a documentary film produced by in 2004 on the subject of El Sistema.[110] The film has won several awards, including Best Documentary at both the 2007 Cine Las Americas International Film Festival and also the CineMás Albuquerque Latino Film Festival.[111]
Alberto Arvelo
El Sistema, a 2008 documentary made by Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier about the system. Production: EuroArts Music Production, , NHK.[112] The film won the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival in 2010 and Best Documentary at the Orlando Hispanic Film Festival in 2009.
ARTE France
Dudamel: Conducting a Life is an hour-long PBS program hosted by Tavis Smiley on the subject of music education in the United States, with a focus on Gustavo Dudamel and his achievements with the L.A. Philharmonic. The report includes a look at how the Boston Conservatory Lab Charter School works with children.
[113]
El Sistema: a report on CBS's 60 Minutes from 13 April 2008 which explores the "System" and includes interviews with some of the Venezuelan children who are members of an orchestra.
[114]
Crescendo! The Power of Music: is a 2014 documentary film about Sistema-inspired programs in Philadelphia and Harlem.
[115]
: the character of Rodrigo de Souza (played by Gael García Bernal) is loosely based on Gustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelan music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.[116] Dudamel coached García Bernal before the latter conducted, in the character of Rodrigo, for a real performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, scenes of which were used for the second season opener.[117] Dudamel has a cameo in that episode, acting as a stagehand trying to convince Rodrigo to move to Los Angeles.
Mozart in the Jungle
The Music Inside, which tells the stories of Kidznotes students, wins both a Telly and a regional Emmy Award for Documentary Short Film in 2016–17.
current musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Paris Opera, had his musical beginnings in El Sistema. According to Dudamel, "music saved my life and has saved the lives of thousands of at-risk children in Venezuela...like food, like health care, like education, music has to be a right for every citizen."[118]
Gustavo Dudamel
became chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
Christian Vásquez
in 2019 was appointed as Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile
Rodolfo Saglimbeni
César Iván Lara is the Principal Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mendoza (Argentina)
In 2019 became the conductor of the Reed College orchestra being the first Latin American conductor to obtain this position
Giancarlo Castro D'Addona
teaches violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and is principal guest leader of the Budapest Festival Orchestra
Giovanni Guzzo
conducted orchestras in Colombia, Belgium, Japan, and United States
Sergio Rosales
Double-bass player became the youngest musician ever to join the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Edicson Ruiz
Eduardo Marturet is the Music Director & Conductor of the Miami Symphony Orchestra
Tulio Cremisini is the Principal Timpanist with Miami Symphony Orchestra
is a multidirectional soloist flautist, and world-class reed and woodwind player
Pedro Eustache
a clarinetist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has said that "the System was an open door to another dimension, a different world that I probably could have never seen."[119]
Alcides Rodriguez
On 4 September 2016 's work Hipnosis mariposa was premiered at The BBC Proms[120][121] by Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
Paul Desenne
List of youth orchestras
Baker, Geoffrey, "El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuela's Youth", Oxford University Press, 2014.
Tunstall, Tricia, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2012 978-0-393-07896-1
ISBN
Wakin, Daniel J., . The New York Times. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
"Venerated High Priest and Humble Servant of Music Education"
Notes
Cited sources
Articles about El Sistema
"Part 1 of a trip to Caracas which led to a world of discovery", 4 July 2005
Others