THE ABREU FELLOWS GRADUATE! WHAT NEXT?!!

Graduation Pic

Graduation Day. Just like that, a whole school year has flown by and my Abreu Fellowship colleagues and I have graduated. And we're now on to the reality of leading El Sistema programs outside of Venezuela.

For our graduation the New England Conservatory arranged a great little ceremony and reception for us. In attendance were many of the seminar leaders we had had over the year as well as NEC board members, faculty and staff. I enjoyed seeing both of my mentors in the audience: NEC viola faculty Martha Katz and NEC Vice-President for Institutional Development, Don Jones. The superb Marcus Santos, who led our Samba percussion workshop in January also showed up. And Martha, our spanish teacher was present with her new 3-week old baby boy. Oh, and how could I forget Anna Verghese and Amy Novogratz from the TED Prize! It feels like only yesterday they were interviewing me for the fellowship.

With the Amy Novogratz and Anna Verghese of the TED Prize production team

The ceremony opened with  Katie Wyatt and I playing a couple of movements from Bach's First Suite for Cello, and Katie encored with a beautiful rendition of a song we heard many, many, many, many times in Venezuela, aptly titled "Venezuela". I didn't do nearly enough concertizing this year so when we were offered the chance to perform at the graduation I jumped at it.

The two Abreu Fellows doing El Sistema in the South. Katie Wyatt in Durham and myself in Atlanta.

As this was my fourth post-secondary graduation, I selfishly decided I had earned the right to dress the way I wanted. I wore khakis, a collared shirt and on top of that a t-shirt that was hand-made and given to me by one of the mothers of a child from the nucleo in Acarigua. It read: "YO SOY100% FESNOJIV" (I am 100% El Sistema), and below that were the Venzuelan flag and Canadian flag side-by-side. I thought it was appropriate attire and nobody complained (to my face).

Following the music we began our group presentation, very similar to the one we did in Los Angeles, basically reflecting on our time in Venezuela through anecdotes, stories, pictures and videos. I again told the story of 10-year old Carlos in Acarigua, who, nine days after I gave him his first bassoon lesson, was thrown into the nucleo orchestra to play Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture in concert. It's a great story that represents what El Sistema is about in so many ways. I discuss this in more detail in my blog post on our time in Acarigua, Venezuela.

I have to say, after doing this presentation for Dr. Abreu in Caracas, in Los Angeles for 200 professional music educators, administrators and musicians, we had it down pretty good. I am particularly happy with having had so many opportunities to do public speaking throughout the year as I know it will come in very handy during the coming years doing this work. I'm still more comfortable playing the bassoon in public but compared to last October when just starting the fellowship, speaking in public is now a lot easier. In fact  I quite enjoy it and would be lying if I said it wasn't fun. It doesn't hurt to have something so inspiring as El Sistema to talk about. It practically pitches itself!

Our presentation was followed by the presentation of the Abreu Fellows Program certificates, a reception in the office of NEC President, Tony Woodcock and tons of pictures.

At the post-graduation reception with El Sistema USA Director Mark Churchill and El Sistema USA Managing Director, Stephanie Scherpf.

AND NOW FOR NEXT YEAR...

This year of training went by very fast and has come to an end for us, the first class of Abreu Fellows, but the journey of playing our part as ambassadors of El Sistema has really just begun.

I should mention that I'm thrilled to learn that 10 new Abreu Fellows have been selected to form the second class. We've met quite a few of them already and read their biographies. As you will see soon when they are officially announced, they are a stellar group and I look forward to getting to know them better and working alongside them in the future. Remember, Abreu's TED Prize wish was to train 50 fellows, so this program will be around for at least the next four years and hopefully more. If you're thinking of applying, don't wait until the fifth year because it's going to get harder and harder to get accepted as more and more people apply for the fellowship.


Abreu Fellow and my "El Sistema in the South" partner in crime, Katie Wyatt, performs at the Abreu Fellows graduation ceremony.

As for the the first class of Fellows, we're taking our training and experiences to the real world. After spending the year searching for job opportunities, being recruited, doing interviews and tons  of travelling, we'll be playing leading roles in El Sistema program all over the United States. Here's how it's breaking out:

Lorrie Heagy is returning  to Juneau, Alaska to initiate Juneau Music Matters, Dan Berkowitz is Manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's YOLA, Christine Witkowski is leading YOLA's second site called YOLA at HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles), Alvaro Rodas is founding the Corona Youth Music Project in Queens, NY, David Malek and Rebecca Levi are co-directing a program in Boston at the Conservatory Lab Charter School, my main man Stanford Thompson is director of Tune-Up Philly, a program of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, and Katie Wyatt is executive director of KidzNotes in Durham, NC. As for me, I will head to down to Atlanta as executive director of the Atlanta Music Project.

The Atlanta Music Project will launch its pilot year in late 2010 in an underserved community in Atlanta.  I have a great team in Atlanta and we've been working hard all year to get this program off the ground. It was hard to balance learning a bunch of new skills in the fellowship while applying them literally at the same time to a real world project.  Several times I found myself in Venezuela working late into the night on the Atlanta Music Project. Balancing the fellowship curriculum, the Venezuelan residency and working on next year's project was a handful  but at the same time it was exhilarating to be able to watch something spectacular in Venezuela during the day and then go back to the hotel at night and immediately apply what I had seen to a real-life project. I can assure you that all the other fellows were doing the same routine as me this year in order to have their programs launch on time too. El Sistema is very nice and all but no one ever said it was easy. A few times I asked myself what the hell I had signed up for. This year was a steep learning curve and sometimes I feel like we're all crazy to be jumping into this. But then again everyone thought Dr. Abreu was crazy too...

You can read all about the Atlanta Music Project on our website and you visit our page on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1833375224/the-atlanta-music-project-music-for-social-change-0 to learn how you can represent the Atlanta Music Project by buying t-shirts, medallions, DVDs etc. We're also on Twitter and Facebook where you can follow our developments daily.

The Abreu Fellows back at the beginning of the fellowship in October 2009.

For me, the best thing about the Abreu Fellows Program is that it has given me the opportunity to engage in something that I felt was in me all along but was going to be hard to manifest itself from me simply playing the bassoon. I've always been sort of impatient and had low tolerance for injustice and inequality but I felt I couldn't do much about that by simply playing in orchestra, and this always bothered me. But thanks to the Abreu Fellowship, I now have a way to use music as a vehicle for something even greater.

Towards the end of our first meeting with Dr. Abreu in Caracas, he began to thank everyone for helping make the Abreu Fellows Program come true. Then, he sort of jokingly thanked himself for thinking of the idea of the Abreu Fellows Program. Later that day, one of Dr. Abreu's aids mentioned to us that that was the first time he'd ever heard Dr. Abreu give himself credit for any of the work he has done. I think he's right to thank himself, and I thank him too. Nobel Peace Prize for Dr. Abreu?

As I said, the real fun is only just beginning for my colleagues and I. Of course I will continue blogging about all things Atlanta Music Project, El Sistema and Abreu Fellows for (hopefully) many more years to come. Thank you for following my blog this year and please stay tuned for more!

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El Sistema in the USA: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra OrchKids Program

Back in May 2010 each Abreu Fellow interned at an El Sistema-inspired program somewhere outside of Venezuela. The idea was to experience how a program took its understanding of El Sistema concepts and applied them to their own community. The fellows interned at programs in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Scotland and myself in Baltimore with the OrchKids program.

I arrived on the scene on May 16th, the night 60 Minutes aired their segment on Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil's Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's OrchKids program. I watched the segment with Dan Trahey, program director and Eli Worth, program conductor. Dan was pacing beforehand but I think he was quite thrilled with the outcome. I  also thought it was a good segment. But since they were focusing on the spread of El Sistema in the USA I just wished they would had mentioned El Sistema USA or the Abreu Fellows. They did have a short clip of Mark Churchill (El Sistema USA/Abreu Fellows Program Director) speaking but only referred to him as "the head of El Sistema in the USA."  It's a curious omission but I can understand this somewhat after spending the year trying to explain the complex links between Jose Antonio Abreu and the Abreu Fellows Program. It's not easy.

Just to recap (or explain, for newcomers), the short, incomplete version goes something like this:

-Jose Antonio Abreu launches El Sistema in Caracas, Venezuela in 1975 with 11 kids in a parking garage.

- In the 1990s El Sistema forms a National Children's Orchestra, of which Gustavo Dudamel is a part as a violinist and conductor. They eventually take on the name of Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra "B".

-Gustavo Dudamel wins the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2004. Everyone asks "Who is this kid and where does he come from?" The answer is, of course, he is a product of El Sistema (El who?).

-Somewhere during this time, Mark Churchill, Dean of the Prep School and of Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory, takes note of this national youth orchestra program in Venezula. This is the beginning of a long relationship between Churchill and NEC and Jose Antonio Abreu and El Sistema.

-Dudamel's victory in the Mahler competition leads to instant curiousity and eventually recognition of El Sistema, their Simon Bolivar Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel. Who knew there were 350,000 kids playing in neighbourhood youth orchestras everyday after school all over a country better known for its oil, its president and its Miss Universes.

-Cue concerts with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra B and Dudamel all over the world, including the London Proms, La Scala, Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Plus hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube.

-Dudamel is named music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

-Jose Antonio Abreu is garnering prizes all over the world, including in the United States, the TED Prize, which is worth $100,000 and "one wish." His wish: to create the Abreu Fellows Program in order to train musicians to start El Sistema in the United States and beyond.

-Given its relationship with El Sistema in Venezuela, the New England Conservatory hosts the Abreu Fellows Program. El Sistema USA, a networking and resource organization, is formed to spearhead the Abreu Fellows Program and connect other American (and other) El Sistema programs to each other. Mark Churchill is director of both the Abreu Fellows Program and El Sistema USA.

-The Abreu Fellows study El Sistema all year (2009-2010), including trips to Venezuela and various US-based El Sistema-like programs.

Simple no? If you have questions or want to add or correct anything, please feel free to add your comment below the end of the blog.

Back to Baltimore. I believe the Baltimore Symphony OrchKids program has the right idea with its educational and community pursuits because just like El Sistema, they're using music to uplift youths and communities. An orchestra's weapon of contribution is music, and by bringing it to the community, especially underserved communities, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is winning the hearts of many, many people (including 60 Minutes), some of whom have never been anywhere near a symphony orchestra. I say it's a "weapon" because music, in this instance, is consciously being used as a tool to combat povery of spirit, lack of motivation and an abundance of free time. And when I say "bringing music to the community" I mean, putting instruments in the youths' hands...several times a week...all year long...all over the city.

The OrchKids Program wants all 82,000 Baltimore City Public School students to eventually be part of their program. It's a lofty goal, but I think it's the right direction to go in. I saw their 10-year plan. If they're able to stick to it, tickets to the Baltimore Symphony will be hard to come by in 10-15 years. To be sure, it's certainly an investment, but in due time, those kids (and their parents, friends and families) will have a life-long appreciation of the Baltimore Symphony. This kind of hands-on, sustained investment in youths and communities ought to be part of any good philanthropic plan if symphony orchestras are going to continue to be relevant in their own cities.

For more program details and behind the scenes footage on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra OrchKids Program please see my blogs from November 2009 here and here.

I arrived at the OrchKids Program as they were preparing their end of the year concert. The idea was to turn the Lockerman Bundy Elementary School gym into a lavish concert hall. Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop was to come conduct AND play violin as part of the concert (that's her in the picture on the left at the dress rehearsal). Certainly the program could have rented a nice hall, but I thought it was a strong statement by the BSO to bring the music to the school, which is in West Baltimore.

Along with some other volunteers and interns, I was tasked with helping out with the concert production, striking the stage, teaching some classes and acting as a stage hand during the concert.

Here's how we decorated the gym. First off, we needed to cover the hideous, beige, concrete-blocked walls with something more fancy. So we went to Wal-Mart and bought loads of black material to cover the walls. We used velcro tape to hang it. We ran white Christmas lights along the edge of the material. An actual three-foot stage was brought in for the ensembles to play on top of. We covered portable chalk boards with black construction paper to create the stage wings. We bought small floodlamps and fitted them strategically around the gym to create mood lighting. We needed lights aimed at the stage so using a ladder and some zip ties we fixed some floodlights to the basketball nets and pointed them toward the stage. We decorated the edge of the stage and the music stands with music notes cut out of construction paper. 300+ chairs were brought in for the audience, which included the familes, teachers and donors. Add the American flag, the State of Maryland flag and a podium for speeches. We turned off the gym lights, turned on the floodlights, turned on the air conditioning (which never ended up working) and VOILA, the gym was turned into a "concert hall". The picture of the dress rehearsal below and to the right shows our work.

Flyers were made to announce the concert which was given the name:

"A Night With The Future: A Community Affair".

The concert involved about 150 OrchKids. There were several choir pieces, including Beyonce's "Halo", a bucket band number led by Baltimore Symphony percussionist Brian Pretchl, a piece for piano and orchestra featuring Peabody Conservatory Marian Hahm on piano, a woodwind ensemble, a Stevie Wonder piece, a blues where every kid on stage took a solo and Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop conducted the OrchKids orchestra in Amazing Grace. Marin also played violin in one of the pieces. The OrchKids teachers played with the kids on stage when needed but they made a point of staying out of the way and keeping the focus on the students. The kids performed admirably. The oldest are only in third grade and if they keep going at this rate they're going to be virtuosos.

The concert was followed by a reception in the school cafeteria where donors mingled with parents and kids with teachers. It truly was a community affair with the focus on "the future."

The OrchKids program embodies many of the concepts and philosophies I saw in Venezuela, indeed their program leadership (Dan Trahey and Nick Skinner) spent some time in Acarigua, before the Abreu Fellows Program even existed, so they certainly know what they're doing. By keeping the focus on the music, the kids and the community I'm certain the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will become an even bigger part of the city.

Please stay tuned for my next blog which will come out before the end of this week. It will include writings on our graduation, the new class of Abreu Fellows and my and the fellows' plans for next year.

"Seminario en Los Llanos"

An iguana hanging out on the hotel property.

After spending most of the last three weeks in small groups, the Abreu Fellows are back in Caracas. This week is Holy Week in Venezuela, so most of Caracas is on vacation somewhere along the Caribbean Sea.

More on what we've been up to during Holy Week in my next blog. Until then let me tell you about my group's last two weeks.

We spent them at the nucleo in the city of Acarigua-Araure in the state of Portuguesa.  Acarigua is part of "Los Llanos" or "The Plains" region in Venezuela. Wikipedia tells me Los Llanos is a tropical grassland that can encounter a lot of flooding in the rainy season. We were there in the dry season and  the average temperature was probably around 35 to 38 degrees celsius. I don't really understand why, but Venezuelans aren't big on shorts, even in this ridiculous heat. We were told that it was better not to wear shorts so we could blend in more. I couldn't handle the heat in Acarigua. I wore shorts every single day.

It also didn't help that the town, including the nucleo, cut electricity everyday for as much as 3 hours.  We tried to avoid rehearsing when this happened but the students told me that they sometimes rehearse without electricity, hence without air conditioning. Ridiculous. The nucleo is trying to acquire a new space at the local university. I really hope they get it.

Some of the younger nucleo kids partying after their concert.

The people from this region are known as "Llaneros" or "Plainsman". The vibe in this region reminded me of being in Aspen, Colorado or Banff, Alberta. Upon arriving they advised me that the dish of choice in Los Llanos is meat. This brought a smile to my face. I proceeded to eat some the best steak and chicken I've ever eaten. It's called "carne en vara" or "meat on a stick". It tastes as good as it looks (with apologies to vegetarians):

Carne En Vara

Our good friend and special guest lecturer at the Abreu Fellows Program, Robert Zambrano, is the director of the nucleo in Acarigua. He had big plans for Jonathan, Stan and I. We were to spend the two weeks leading a "seminario" for his nucleo orchestra.

In El Sistema, a seminario is when the students get together over a given period of days to participate in intensive rehearsals, sometimes in preparation for a concert. The seminario can last a weekend or a month. It can take place at a retreat or at the nucleo and is often led by a guest artist. During that time the students rehearse and practice all day in an effort to put together challenging music, usually for a concert at the end of the seminario. Ok, I'll stop beating around the bush: it's band camp. And for those who don't know what band camp is, think of it like summer camp but instead of buidling camp fires and canoeing, the kids play music. And when they return to school they often get made fun of for going to said band camp. 

One thing seminarios are used for in El Sistema is to challenge the students to learn repertoire that is very challenging for them in a short period of time. Of course it's also good for bonding, making friends, having fun and getting better individually and as a group. But I think the most important reason for having seminarios is to challenge the students by giving them repertoire that they think is unplayable and then have them play it in concert. It's a confidence builder. It's an exercise is setting goals for oneself and then achieving them.

Young violinists practicing in the backyard of the nucleo.

The repertoire Roberto chose for the orchestra to play and for Jonathan to conduct was "Gloria al Bravo Pueblo" (Glory to the Fierce People), which is the national anthem of Venezuela, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Danzon by Mexican composer Arturo Marquez. 

Roberto essentially let us organize and run rehearsals the way we wanted. It ended up being great on-the-job training and a chance to practice running a nucleo for two weeks. The only constraint Roberto gave us was the times available to rehearse. He said:  3pm to 8pm Monday through Friday, the entire weekend and any other time we wanted. "What if the kids have school?" I asked. "They'll get special permission to get out of school for this," he responded. Well OK  then...let's roll.

Hanging out during a break from rehearsal. The boy with the yellow shirt is the nucleo orchestra's concertmaster, at age 13.

We decided to teach private lessons and master classes in the mornings, then in the afternoons we held sectional rehearsals and full orchestra rehearsals. Stan led the brass sectionals, I led the woodwind sectionals and Jonathan led the string sectionals and full orchestra rehearsals. He also conducted the final concert, from memory, in brilliant fashion. Kudos JAG.

Stan teaches a trumpet lesson while our camera man, Joaquin, does some filming.

Stan and I often played in the orchestra rehearsals after having coached our sections but didn't play in the final concert. After coaching these kids for two weeks, we figured it was more appropriate to keep the spotlight on them during the concert.  Us playing with them in rehearsals was simply a form of teaching by playing. 

These were long days and a lot work. The orchestra had never played 1812 and for a number of the players the piece was very challenging. However, Roberto insisted that they all play the concert no matter what.

Sitting in on the nucleo orchestra rehearsal.

To get around this issue and still give all the kids the satisfaction of playing great music, Jonathan came up with the idea of writing out simpler parts for the less advanced players. He even had them play an audition of these simplified parts offering prizes for the best performances.

I taught 10-year old Carlos how to put a bassoon together and play an F major scale on a Wednesday. 9 days later he played 1812 in concert. Yes, I wrote him a simplified part and he had to sit through most of the piece without playing because the music was too advanced for him. But, he got to sit through great rehearsals beside older, more advanced players, play great music and play his first orchestra concert. This is inclusion.

I have to admit that it was difficult for me to understand why you would throw a kid into a concert when he can barely put the instrument together. But the way Roberto Zambrano explained it to me it was important that Carlos participate so he can see what it's like to prepare a piece, play it in concert and experience the audience's recognition for his work.

With Carlos and his family at his first orchestra concert. Hence, he received his first Tocar Y Luchar medal. 

Was he bored or discouraged? I don't think he was.  After singing in the choir and playing recorder for at least a year while watching the older players rehearse in orchestra, he was so wound up to play in orchestra that I don't think it mattered to him that he couldn't play all the notes. After our first lesson, I gave him a reed,  had him put away his instrument and gave him some drills to do over the week. I went for a drink of water, came back a minute later, and found him with the bassoon put back together and practicing.

"los vientos maderas" aka the woodwinds.

The notion of always challenging their participants and always setting goals that are a little bit outside of their reach is part of the spirit of El Sistema. Their motto is "tocar y luchar" or "to play and to struggle".  The idea is that this fighting spirit can be applied to other areas of their lives. 

Throughout these two weeks I also started thinking more about how the kids in El Sistema (or other similar music programs) transfer their music skills to life skills.  One Saturday morning we called a rehearsal for 8 am. When we arrived at the nucleo there was only one student there.  We didn't have enough people to rehearse until 9:30am. I was livid. I was upset that the kids were late, but I knew there was a more important reason why I was angry, but at the time I just couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I had spent most of the week coaching the woodwind sectionals. Coaching them to play the right style here, working endlessly on tuning there, giving them ideas on how to practice difficult passages and how to mark their orchestra parts. I thought I was being hard on them because I wanted them to play well and also to have some tools to keep on improving when we weren't around. But after they arrived late that Saturday morning, it started coming together for me. I wasn't being hard on them because I wanted them to play perfectly.

Acarigua nucleo director, Roberto Zambrano, gets the orchestra ready before showtime.

Through teaching them all this musical stuff they were implicitly learning skills for life. Having the discipline to practice their part at home and come to rehearsal prepared was teaching them responsibility, learning to play in tune and blend their sound with other players was teaching them how to listen and consider other people's positions and difficulties. Telling them to write notes in their parts so they wouldn't forget certain instructions was teaching them to be sharp, reliable and alert. Putting them on the spot and having them play alone was developing their confidence and ability to perform in front of others. Going over passages with lots of fast notes in a slow and methodical fashion  was showing them that there's no secret to success except quality practice in a progressive and consistent way. Encouraging them to play like soloists was honing their expressiveness.  Making sure they were on time was showing them that they mattered, that they were part of a large group or society that depended on each one of them and that part of being respectful of others was to be on time.

Teaching a reed scraping class and handing out some free materials courtesy of Sue Heineman (National Symphony Orchestra) and Matthew Ruggiero (retired from Boston Symphony Orchestra).

I guess these links between music skills and life skills are rather obvious, especially to music educators, but it wasn't until I was put in this position of preparing these kids for an important concert that I felt a responsibility to teach them more than music.

With the nucleo staff and the camera crew after the concert.

It all started making more and more sense to me. I now remember in high school how I was almost like two different people: I was a musician and I was just a normal kid doing stupid things kids do. Then slowly as I developed as a musician all the tools I was using to get better were seeping into my school work and social life. The two people were becoming one: the musician took better notes in class (except chemistry class),  the musician that liked playing things well in every rehearsal started hating going to class if he hadn't done the assigned reading. When others got tired of working the musician just kept going because, that's just what had to be done to get it right.  And the cocky high school athlete in me got tired of hearing myself talk and instead spent more time listening to and learning from others.

Jonathan conducting the nucleo orchestra in concert.

So when the kids were late that Saturday morning, I now realize that I had gotten so upset not because we missed out on rehearsal time but because they weren't fully understanding the importance of how their work as music students would benefit them in other parts of their lives. I voiced my displeasure to Roberto, who was just as upset as I was and he gave his students a good talking to. They did much better after that. I still don't know if they understand what is at stake for them here, but that doesn't matter, yet. It took me awhile to figure out too. But eventually I think they will understand that the way they approach their music will bare resemblance to the way they approach their lives.

Plaza Simon Bolivar in Araure, where the concert took place.

The concert was scheduled for Saturday March 27th in the Simon Bolivar Plaza. In the run-up to the concert Roberto had us on two local televisions shows, do an interview for the city newspaper and took out ad space in a newspaper. On one of the TV shows I somehow got convinced to demonstrate my mediocre skill at "baile de tambores", which is a traditional Afro-Venezuelan drum dance that I've been working on. The staff at our hotel poked fun at me for my attempt. Apparently the whole town saw it. I'll keep practicing but I hope a video of it doesn't end up on YouTube.

Hanging out after the concert with two bassoonists from the nucleo. As you can see I've received my Tocar Y Luchar Medal and custom-made El Sistema T-shirt complete with Canadian and Venezuelan flags.

The concert went off without a hitch. Jonathan did a fine job leading the orchestra and the kids played very well, showing remarkable improvement over two weeks. Just before playing the Danzon, Jonathan, Stan and I received our own Tocar y Luchar medals, a plaque, and homemade t-shirts with the words "I am 100% El Sistema" and the Canadian (American for Stan) and Venezuelan flags joined together.  Following this we went back to the nucleo  for a reception with the families of the participants where we did some eating, pictures and dancing.

 Roberto Zambrano presents Jonathan, Stan and I with the Tocar Y Luchar medal. His son Karel, who is holding the medals, is a percussion student at the nucleo.

During the two weeks we also took two day trips. On the first one we went to the nucleo in Guanare to go see Abreu Fellows Program Seminar Director Eli Epstein, a longtime former horn player with the Cleveland Orchestra. Eli spent 10 days leading his own seminario with the brass students, which culminated in a great concert in which he conducted the Guanare Nucleo Brass Ensemble. Bravo Eli!

Our Seminar Director Eli Epstein is mobbed by students after he conducts them in a brass ensemble concert in Guanare. Eli received a plaque and medal as well.

Our second day trip was to Barquisimeto which is Gustavo Dudamel's hometown. Dudamel is so popular in his hometown that graffiti of his name can be found in several places. We saw the nucleo in Barquisimeto but Roberto really took us to Barquisimeto for two different reasons: to eat goat ("chivo"), which the town is famous for, and to take us to a nearby town called Quibor, to do some souvenir shopping at the markets.

The market...great for souvenirs.

There is some really big stuff going on here in Caracas this week. I'll write about it in my next blog. If you think El Sistema is just another music program, you have another thing coming.

As always, I'm open to questions, comments and requests. If there's something about El Sistema that you'd like to know more about just let me know. And more importantly, if there's something about El Sistema that you don't like or disagree with, I want to know as well.  I know and they know that the program isn't perfect. It's in constant development, as their motto suggests.  But what truly impresses me about El Sistema, are its philosophies and how they are applied with such commitment and to such a vast number of youth.

The nucleo percussion section before the concert starts.

After Holy Week, we're back into our groups again. Jonathan has returned to North America for a couple of weeks to do some auditions but Stan and I will be heading to Cumana,  a town which is on the coast of the Caribbean Sea.  Stay tuned for more.

           

PHOTO ESSAY: INTRODUCTION TO EL SISTEMA IN CARACAS

Finally in Venezuela!

In the days prior to arriving in Caracas chaos reigned in my life: too many things to do before leaving and not enough time to do them all. People often asked me if I was excited about getting here and I had to tell that I didn't really know how I felt because I hadn't had time to think about it.

With everything that has been thrown at us this year, the residency in Venezuela seemed very far away to me. My thoughts were consumed with things like budgets, YouTube videos,  first-hand testimonies, management skills, Abreu, fundraising, El Sistema, Spanish. I never had time think much about what Venezuela would be like. On top of that I didn't know what to expect. Travelling so far away seemed vague to me. I hadn't left North America in 12 years or so, the last time being when my high school orchestra travelled to Cuba to do an exchange with the Havana Conservatory orchestra.

As I write this, I realize that's it's kind of interesting that the only other time I've been to a Latin American country was to do something music-related. I am consistently amazed at how music has and keeps opening doors for me to experience different cultures, meet different people and learn new things. I believe that with music I can sit down with someone from anywhere in the world and connect with them without saying a word. I know our time here in Venezuela will prove me right.

It wasn't until the plane landed and the flight attendant announced "ladies and gentlemen welcome to Caracas" that I actually started getting really excited. I immediately went shutter-happy and to the dismay of my colleagues began snapping away pictures to no avail. Our first days here have been mostly an introduction to El Sistema and since I'm overjoyed to be here and taking way too many pictures, I figured why not show what we've been up to.


Upon our arrival at the airport in Caracas we were greeted by El Sistema staff, which included Roberto Zambrano, the director of the El Sistema program in Acarigua. You may remember him from by blog #3 as he was the one who gave us the El Sistema "Tocar Y Luchar" medallions.

Here I am at the airport with Rodrigo, our guide/host here in Caracas.  Rodrigo works in El Sistema's office of International Affairs. He is a marvellous host with impeccable English and an encyclopedic knowledge of El Sistema's history and development. I was thrilled to see that when he greeted us at the airport he was wearing a Leading Note Foundation (Ottawa's own El Sistema-like program) T-Shirt. 


Meet 19 year-old oboist Carmello. He hails from Chacao, a municipal area in Caracas. Rodrigo was leading us on a tour of El Sistema's stunning new performance and rehearsal center named "The Center For Social Action Through Music." Carmello's El Sistema nucleo is in Chacao but I imagine he was at the center to get in a bit of practice before going to attend the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Concert, which was also taking place at the Center.

Here are all the fellows plus Rodrigo and Stephanie on the far left on a terrace of The Center For Social Action Through Music. This building is beautiful, with several terraces, which are accessible directly from the hallways. Every room in the building is multi-purpose and was built with acoustics in mind. They can all be used for rehearsals, performance or recording of any type of ensemble. The rooms are all equipped with multi-media outlets so performances can be broadcast via radio, TV and internet.  Furthermore,  the rooms all have floating floors which helps to minimize sound transference from room to room. There is minimal office space and at a whim, any office space can be turned into a performance space.  What I admire most about this building, besides its great architecture is that it caters to music-making first and foremost. And from what I understand this was intentional, as this center's focus is to give the students the very best conditions in which to develop.

The same night of our tour we were invited to watch a concert celebrating the 35th anniversary of El Sistema. The program consisted of Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra "A" (which contains the founding members of this orchestra), in Mahler's 9th Symphony. In this picture Dudamel takes a bow with the orchestra at the end of show. I have to point out that Dudamel is one of the only big-time conductors I know of that refuses to stand on the podium when he takes his bows with the orchestra. As you can see in this picture he's on the floor with the orchestra members.  I've noticed this sense of togetherness and humility in every El Sistema student I've come across, from Boston to Caracas. Here, playing in the orchestra is as much about being a family as it is being musicians and this is easily recognizable when they play.

Backstage with Gustavo after the concert.

On Saturday morning we attended a concert at the Center given by the Teresa Carreno Youth Symphony, which is an orchestra of mostly high school students from Caracas. These are some kids lining up for the concert. This here is the future of instrumental music. These are the people that must be attending concerts.

In the picture below, on the left is Lila, the concertmistress of the Teresa Carreno Youth Symphony. She played her solos beautifully in Camille Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre. On the right is Daniel Arias who performed Saint-Saens' concerto for cello  #1 brilliantly. I played both of these pieces in high school so this concert brought back some good memories.

I'm not sure if it's simply the size of the orchestras in El Sistema but they have a way of really drawing in the listener, especially the string sections which seem to all be playing for their life. It's not always perfect, no orchestra is all the time anyway, but it's intoxicating and mesmerizing. And just for your reference, this orchestra is the same one that performs in Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize talk, which I put in my blog #1. Believe me, this orchestra is even better live.

Before coming to Venezuela I collected bassoon related materials to give out to El Sistema programs. While Caracas has a healthy supply of these materials, a lot of the nucleos in the country and the mountains are lacking key materials.  Remember that there are 184 nucleos in El Sistema and they don't all have  access to the materials and teachers that a big city such as Caracas does.

Robert Zambrano's nucleo in Acarigua is one of these nucleos in need, especially for bassoon and oboe materials. Here we are at the Center with his nephew, Aquarius Zambrano. These materials, which include reed cases, cane and reed knives were graciously donated by Matthew Ruggiero, a long-time Bassoonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Sue Heineman, Principal Bassoon of the National Symphony Orchestra. Thank you  both for your generosity.

On Saturday afternoon we attended a rehearsal of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra "B" conducted by Claudio Abbado. This is the orchestra that you see on YouTube all the time and tours the world with Gustavo Dudamel. Here is a picture of the bass section.

In seeing them in person for the first time one thing that caught my attention was how much they moved as a group when they played. I've never seen a bass section move like that. That night we had dinner with Alejandro, the concertmaster of the orchestra, and his wife, and I spoke to Alejandro about my observation. He chuckled and said that what I had seen in rehearsal was nothing. "Just wait until the concert." Well I can't wait to see this. The concert, conducted by Claudio Abbado, is Wednesday and it includes Berg's Lulu, Prokofiev's Symphonic Suite and Tchaikovsky's Symphony #6.

After the rehearsal we got to meet Maestro Abbado. Here I am with Lorrie, Katie, Abbado and Jonathan.

On Sunday morning we got to meet with Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema, for about 2 hours.  In his talk with us three things really caught my attention. The first is that when he started El Sistema he insisted that human development be one of the key concepts of El Sistema. Not music, but human development. To help make his point he made sure that the government funding supporting El Sistema came not from the Ministry of Culture but from the Ministry of Social Welfare. In this way the government had to acknowledge that El Sistema was a social transformation program first and a music program second.

Second he encouraged us to put faith in our teachers, especially the younger ones. The teachers, says Maestro Abreu, will be the heart and soul of our programs. I know from our studies that I can look forward to seeing many, many young students in teaching positions throughout our stay in Venezuela.

And the third is something that will stick with me forever: "Culture for the poor should not be poor culture." This is happening here in Caracas. The diversity of the crowd at the Friday night concert with Dudamel was like nothing I've ever seen before back home. Whites, Blacks,  10 year olds (on the edge of their seats!), and senior citizens sitting side-by-side watching a very well-played Mahler symphony, at a fabulous hall with a world-class conductor.

Maestro Abreu is an incredible leader. He has complete command of his talking points, his arguments and their explanations. Even though he spoke off the cuff with us it was always eloquent and poetic.

Our meeting started as a simple meet and greet. He began speaking casually, pleasantries and all, but then it somehow morphed into a rousing speech. After 45 minutes I was ready to run through a brick wall for him. He is an amazing orator and if you've ever seen him speak you know what I'm talking about.  

On Sunday afternoon we took a cable car up to the top of El Avila (2175 meters), which towers above Caracas. From the top the views were stunning. One side of the mountain looks down over Caracas and the other, which is the picture below, looks down over villages and the Caribbean Sea. In the picture between Stan and I is Adam Johnston, son of author Tricia Tunstall, who you may remember is writing the very first book on El Sistema.

This man is known as "Antonin, the poet of Avila."  He was selling a poster of his own poem. They title is "Como Cambiar El Mundo" or "How To Change The World". Being the hopeless romantic I am, I had to buy a copy from him.

I have no idea what the body of the poem says, and I will translate it eventually, but with a title like "Como Cambiar El Mundo," I wouldn't be surprised if El Sistema was in there somewhere.

In the next few days we will be visiting Montalban, the flagship nucleo of El Sistema. Following this we will be split up into groups of two and three to visit nucleos throughout the country. Teaching and performing will be part of our residency, as well as research and documentation. My group is heading to the Andes to visit nucleos in Merida, Trujillo and Tachira.

Stay tuned for more!