Maestro Abreu, Rodrigo Guerrero and Deborah Borda onstage at Walt Disney Hall

I had but ten hours in Los Angeles last Wednesday at the Take a Stand Symposium, during which time I reconnected with some old friends, finally met in person some wonderful, inspiring correspondents new and old, and had many interesting conversations, but of those six hundred minutes, thirty were in a one-on-one conversation with Maestro Abreu.

I don’t know why he thus honoured me when he has so many calls upon his time, but we found a quiet corner in the lobby of the Omni hotel and sat down to talk. I took the opportunity to present him with print copies of the various publications in which my articles on Sistema had appeared since our last meeting, and to ask him a few questions to direct my ongoing work.

A good moment with a most gracious gentleman

My research on Sistema has always been guided primarily by my time making music within it, rather than just observing it, and I’d like to think the former has given me some uncommon insight as I’ve attempted to deconstruct my experiences in Venezuela, and connect them to contemporary educational and sociological scholarship. But there are a few concepts that, even when deconstructed structurally or philosophically, still seem incompletely expressed. There’s a spiritual element to Sistema; it is part of the structure, it is part of the philosophy, but it extends beyond both, and there is no one save Maestro Abreu who unites and articulates these qualities better.

And the one thing I have deconstructed structurally and philosophically, but not spiritually, was the incredible humility of the teachers within Sistema. My last question to Maestro in our time together was simply how – how was this achieved in an industry that elsewhere is so prone to arrogance, egotism and abuse? This was his response.

 

“Teaching is not something hierarchical. It’s a pleasure. We consider ourselves privileged to be a teacher, especially because in Venezuela we didn’t have the profession of music teacher in the past. There’s a sense of pride to achieve through your students.”

Maestro Abreu then gave the example of an exceptional young female horn player from Cojedes, one of the poorest districts of Venezuela, and how her teacher was virtually unknown. Being acquainted with one exceptional young female horn player from the region, I asked if Maestro was thinking of her. “No,” he replied, “she’s from San Carlos.”

The fact that he could immediately distinguish between two of the thousands of students he must have met answered my question completely. He is deeply, profoundly invested in his students and their success. He connects with them, remembers them, values them and gives them his time and attention, no matter how many heads of state, dignitaries or symphony executives clamour for the same. He doesn’t simply articulate the structural, philosophical and spiritual qualities of Sistema – he embodies them too.

So it was with a great sense of humility and honour that I realized that perhaps he considers me one of his students too. Thank you, Maestro, for the half hour.

A sign of the times...

Note: for the many who have asked, I’m happy to say that I will be coming to Los Angeles for the 1st of February only, thanks in very large part to the gracious support of Glenn Thomas of the new El Sistema Global Discussion Group. If you’d like to meet please contact me immediately. My time will be very limited, but I’ll do my best.

It sounds like the title of a lurid novel, but it also summarizes the prevailing paradox of Venezuela: if el Sistema is so successful and effective as a social initiative, why hasn’t it stopped the nation’s ongoing degeneration into extreme violence? With a rate of about 130 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, Caracas habitually tops the list of murder capitals of the world. Nationally the per-capita rate is roughly half that amount but still six times the UN level required to declare an “epidemic” – although current, accurate data is difficult to come by since the government stopped releasing (tracking?) violent crime statistics in 2005, leaving an NGO to attempt to fill the gap independently.

As a social statistic the per-capita murder rate may be sordid and present an incomplete picture of anti-social activity, but it is also one of the most reliable for cross-border comparison. National criminal statute codes are an expression of – or reaction to – local cultures and belief systems, and can vary significantly in terms of how offenses are categorized and punished, but the definition of murder is fairly consistent internationally. Murder rates also have the unhappy advantage of describing indirectly the mindset of criminality, as a benchmark of just how little disregard there may be for life; it’s one thing to rob someone at gunpoint, and quite another to kill them once the wallet or purse has been handed over. In Venezuela the situation is so bad that a “Campaign for Life” has been started by the aforementioned NGO in an attempt to persuade criminals not to kill needlessly while committing other crimes. Baby steps, as they say.

With this backdrop it’s reasonable to ask what influence Sistema has had on the nation’s social situation: statistically speaking, the expansion of its music education programming has been accompanied by a significant rise in violent activity – a warning for all against offering simplistic comparisons. In this area the oft-cited IADB report is somewhat inconclusive, noting only modest reductions in victimization rates between the Intervention group and the Control group of the study in terms of thefts or injuries (p.24). It doesn’t comment on conviction or incarceration rates of program participants vs. control groups, which is surprising given the propensity of Sistema advocates (including myself) to invoke the “Baseline Advocacy Argument” of how the program disconnects young people from criminal opportunity.

What the IADB study demonstrates dramatically and unequivocally is a massive reduction in the school drop-out rate, from 26.4% in the control group to 6.9% in the intervention group. It’s this specific metric that is tied to the primary economic benefit of the program, the return-on-investment of 1.68 Bolívars for every Bolívar expended. Notwithstanding the potential for, or certainty of, a modest self-selection effect therein (that children who are committed to their music education are naturally inclined to transfer the same commitment to their general education/that parents who encourage their children to participate in music also place greater emphasis on education, etc.) this number is nothing short of astounding.

Poverty has been called a vicious circle, an apt description particularly within education. Children from low-income families tend to be less prepared for schooling, thus less able to receive the benefits – and thus end up dropping out sooner, thereby severely and negatively affecting their future income, further perpetuating the Poverty cycle. A near 20% decline in dropout rates will have a significant effect on poverty for the participant group…a decade from now.

There lies the challenge in advocating for Sistema on a numerical basis alone. Despite its recent expansion, it still only serves a small proportion of Venezuela’s very young overall population. Given the nature of its impact, its large scale social benefits will be for the most part (although not entirely) deferred. And while Sistema has grown in the last decade, so has the poverty rate – but at a startlingly higher rate of up to 300% over that timeframe, with urban poverty exceeding 65% in some areas of Caracas. At the same time enforcement has declined and prisons have become the equivalent of vacation resorts – not that increased convictions would help, as the United States’ “War on Crime” of the ‘70s and ‘80s demonstrated with massive “crackdowns” that invariably focused on the most disadvantaged. Once again, the roots of social unrest are not merely the existence of poverty, but the magnitude of the gap between the best off and the worst off. In the US and Venezuela, society’s very structure, rooted in educational and thus income inequality, continues to generate more dispossessed than it can feasibly lock up.

Sistema is having an effect in Venezuela, but one that is manifesting slowly in the face of tremendous social complexity. As I have said before, through its effort to equalize educational opportunity it is part of a solution to social problems, but it is not a Panacea, not a silver bullet. And to those who point to the rapid degeneration of the security situation in Venezuela as proof positive of its failure, I would say “So because the ship is sinking you suggest they stop bailing?”

I’m not ready to consign my nation to the waves just yet, and neither are the Venezuelans.

Music in Early Childhood class in Merida, Vz

Straight from the “you can’t make this up” file comes recent research suggesting that the consequences of cosmetic treatments of Botox (Botulinim Toxin) may be more than a frozen face, but also a frozen heart.

A study from Columbia University revealed that individuals who receive facial Botox injections don’t just have trouble expressing emotions outwardly, their ability to experience them inwardly is diminished as well. There’s a fundamental biological connection between external physicality and internal feeling, and what’s more, the relationship isn’t unidirectional. Further research into embodied cognition seems to indicate that thought or emotion motivates physiological response – to the extent of affecting even how we sit in a chair – as much as the inverse.

(You’d think I would have figured this out earlier, being a conductor. Perhaps this should be added to that long list of things that we only understand intuitively or implicitly at first, rather than explicitly.)

So the lesson from the world of plastic surgery might be that the churning of the sea of string players in a Venezuelan orchestra is as much a catalyst for the musicians’ passion as it a reaction to it. Yes, it’s choreographed, and it may also serve a cultural function, but the training and subsequent propensity of Sistema musicians to dance in -and out of- their chairs is looking more like great pedagogical insight rather than theatrical insincerity.

The insight goes far beyond the creation and transmission of emotion in performance. Third citation alert: there’s yet more research to suggest that the mere act of a group synchronizing its movements effects some degree of social bonding. (Interesting sidenote: the study involved Americans singing “O Canada.”) The authors of the study noted that soldiers are still trained to march in lock-step even though doing so in combat would be suicide, and that religious ceremonies frequently integrate coordinated gesture and repetition, so clearly the concept has been around a long time.

Integrating motion with acoustic aesthetic response isn’t new either. Music in Early Childhood educators will certainly recognize this as one of the concepts underlying Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics, and also Carl Orff’sSchulwerk, the fundamental values of which bear a strong resemblance to those of Sistema. Rather than suppressing the natural tendency of the body to react to music, many of these schools explore and celebrate it. And unsurprisingly, they also produce prosocial results in their participants too.

Which makes me wonder, did the Venezuelans really know from the outset how powerful gesture and motion is, musically AND socially? Or is this another thing that should be added to that long list of things that they understood intuitively and implicitly…?

Special thanks to Kate Einarson of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind for launching me on this track with the Kirschner & Tomasello study.

Margaret Tobolowska and Orkidstra - from the Ottawa Citizen, photo credit: Bruno Schlumberger

(Or Dollars and Sense Part 5 or The Why of Sistema Part 2 or The Morality of Paid-to-Play The Sequel)

Early in the fall I was having a drink with Aristides Rivas, Sistema graduate, one-time student of Roberto Zambrano and now Boston-area cellist and teacher. Beyond his professional activities, Aristides is heavily involved in the social sphere of music, so I wasn’t surprised when he mentioned he was planning on starting a núcleo in the Boston area. I was surprised by what he said next, however, and I will paraphrase: “I don’t want to start a program that’s just for kids who can’t otherwise afford music. One of the most valuable parts of the experience for me in Venezuela was how it brought together people from across society.”

Valuable not just for him, but for society as well: bridging the growing divide between wealthy and poor is one of the most immediate and important social functions of Sistema in Venezuela (see this posting for more) – but it’s an element that has perforce been largely abandoned internationally. The reason is fairly simple: unlike Venezuela, where Sistema is the only option for music education, most developed nations have a well-established parallel sector, represented by conservatories, youth orchestras, and private instructors, providing very high-level training or experiences at commensurate prices. On the surface then, ensuring “access” for those for whom excellent systems already exist and are within financial reach is understandably a low priority. This situation is further compounded by the majority of funding or granting agencies who make it a condition of their gifts that monies be applied only to those with demonstrated need: Sistema programs could in fact be punished financially for attempting to broaden their reach.

And strangely, those few Sistema programs in the best position to integrate vertically generally decline to do so. There are a number of initiatives led by youth orchestras, but the level of interaction between the tuition-based and outreach programs has tended to be very low, or of a nature that emphasizes class divisions. The wealthy students (generally white or Asian in the US) “mentor” the subsidized students (generally black or latino), or play one or two side-by-sides a year, thus reinforcing stereotypical power relationships. It’s all done with the best of intentions, but like so many other things, that doesn’t make it helpful.

There’s one program I know of (please contact me if you know of others) that deliberately integrates vertically (Charter school programs excepted): Orkidstra, in Ottawa, Canada. The only way they are able to mix children of different family incomes is by charging students relative to their ability to pay, although many receive full subsidies.

Orkidstra makes the front page of the Ottawa Citizen

The crux of the issue is how “accessibility” is defined: completely and utterly free without exception, or relative to the resources of the student? Tina Fedeski, founder of Orkidstra, put it very simply in a private conversation at the Montréal symposium: “How can I look a funder in the eye and ask them to subsidize the child of a doctor?” she said. (I’m paraphrasing again.) The fact that her program encompasses such children is wonderful, in my opinion, and a very important dimension of its social impact. Furthermore, the integration reduces the all-too-common perception that Sistema is “just for poor kids,” an idea that only exacerbates the problem of social divisions.

How has the Fundabol reacted to this? Far from disowning and disavowing Tina and Orkidstra for their temerity in attaching a price tag, the Venezuelans hold their work in the highest regard.

The bottom line is that there’s a lot of money in private music instruction. It’s one of the most stable and lucrative educational markets (parents being loath to see their children’s education suffer even during a recession), and could present a very valuable income stream to Sistema programs while diminishing the “poor kids only” perception, promoting integration and mollifying sponsors too. It could manifest in different ways: through paid private lessons for advance students, instrument rental fees, or a sliding scale for ensemble tuition.

The barriers to participation differ for each student: there’s no reason why programs should revisit what constitutes “accessibility” with this in mind. If initiatives have the ability to offer their services entirely free for all while promoting vertical social integration, more power to them, but they should ask whether their mandate could be broadened with a different approach. We live in a society that equates something’s price with its value. We know Sistema is priceless, but does that mean it should always be free?

January 1 2011, not 2012. Sophie sleeps through the night now.

I thought about doing one of those shameless “year in review” postings in which I talk about the orchestras I conducted, how much traveling I do, how tired I am, how many famous people I met, all the places I went, etc. etc. but then I realized that material of that nature doesn’t belong on a blog: it belongs on Facebook.

So here is something completely arbitrary, compiled in an utterly unscientific manner bereft of statistical methodology or evaluative metrics. Ten thoughts from 2011, ten memories or developments or events or discoveries that I think might be worth mentioning. Have an addition? Use the comment form below.

Blog Postings

What does it say about the Zeitgeist when the two most viewed blog postings of the year contained the words “Apology” and “Domestic Dispute” in their respective titles? Unrefined interests of the public aside (sorry to disappoint those looking for self-humiliation or the airing of dirty laundry) the next most viewed posts were those concerning the publication of the Five Fundamentals article and my report from Brazil on Neojibá. There’s hope for the Internet yet…

Núcleo

Of the many excellent social music initiatives I saw this year, the one which really stood out was Neojibá, in Salvador, Brazil. Organizationally, strategically, artistically, they just seem to be getting everything right. The right faculty, the right administration, the right attitude and the right approach… and they’re responsive, honourable collaborators. If they keep going the same way, they’ll set the gold standard for years to come.

Musical Discovery

Schoenberg’s arrangement of the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 for Orchestra is now No. 2 on my list of things I’d love to perform. The orchestration is entirely un-Brahmsian but it’s just so much fun, especially the 4th movement.

Performance I attended (group)

They were in the least glamorous of venues , but the performances of Purcell’s King Arthur with a cast of hundreds of children in the South African townships has to be a highlight of the year. Cape Festival South Africa took on a monumentally ambitious project and executed – and in 2012 they’re going more than one step further. Stay tuned.

Performance (solo)

Back in January, right before I led off the Abreu Fellow keynote at NAMM in Anaheim, a Nova Scotian ukulele “virtuoso” was scheduled to do a short performance. Great, I thought, he’ll warm up the crowd. Five minutes later I was picking my jaw up off the floor and thinking “I have to go on after THAT?”

National Developments in Music Education

2011 might be a watershed year for music education in England. The country commissioned a long, hard look at its current infrastructure (it’s actually very readable!), but as impressively, took the results and acted concretely upon them with a national plan for music education. The entire system is going to be significantly overhauled, with an emphasis on improving access and quality, and the groundwork for a network of privately led but publicly funded (!) Sistema-like programs was laid. The English must be smart – they’re using my Five Fundamentals framework for their national Sistema initiative. Now if only the government had funded the programs to the extent originally promised…

National contribution to Sistema research

Canada is really leading the way in terms of serious Sistema research, hosting two major academic conferences in the space of a year. A Canadian is also responsible for creating a Special Interest Group at ISME on Sistema and getting the topic on the agenda at the July 2012 conference in Greece. (Also using my Five Fundamentals framework…) Why is this research important? Because if we don’t understand the underlying theoretical roots of Venezuelan practice, we can’t adapt it, we can’t contribute to it, we can only imitate it or reinvent the wheel through unguided trial and error.

Professional Orchestra

This one’s a tie. My affections are split between CityMusic Cleveland and the Prince George Symphony, but for different reasons. Both perform in extremely challenging operating contexts. CityMusic Cleveland is an outstanding chamber orchestra, but they never charge admission for their concerts. They’re in a market dominated by a much more famous ensemble, but their houses are still full. The Prince George Symphony is a more traditional operation, but it performs in a town about 500 miles (800 km) from the next city anyone has heard of. (Sorry, Kelowna.) They go to incredible trouble and effort to put an orchestra onstage, which gives you an idea of their values and level of commitment. Kudos to both.

Moment of the year

Standing outside a church in Darling, South Africa, with my infant daughter sleeping in my arms, staring up into the vast luminescence of the Milky Way strewn across the incredibly black antipodean sky, to the grand accompaniment of a choral concert.

Quote of the year

“Let’s all have a party!” – the final (added) line of King Arthur, as delivered by Charles Ainslie in a township auditorium in Cape Town, reminding us all that the act of making music is something to be celebrated.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Last year I suggested a Christmas present from the world to el Sistema. This year I’m pleased to offer a modest gift of my own: a logic model in PDF format for el Sistema programs worldwide.

If you’re not familiar with logic models, at first glance they can appear ironically illogical, particularly the combination of “outputs” and “outcomes.” Logic models always follow a very specific pre-determined format. Simply put, “outputs” are actions generated by the “inputs,” with “outcomes” the results that ensue. Good logic models (I forbear to suggest mine qualifies as such) make clear the thought and intention – the logic – behind an activity, and are requested more and more often by granting agencies as part of an application. A useful resource on these may be found here.

I’ve introduced a minor refinement of the format in this example. Normally a logic model reads left-to-right only, but in this version there’s a vertical element as well, with higher placement indicating a respectively higher degree of prioritization. This isn’t standard practice.

I sincerely hope this document helps you all.

Important Disclaimers!

Click here for the Logic Model

1. This is a generalized logic model that may or may not be applicable to a program; in particular, both Inputs and Outputs can differ significantly based on how a program is structured or operated. The model is provided on an “as is” basis and I make no representation as to its accuracy, completeness, or appropriateness for submission to any individual, agency or organization. If you would like a model customized to a specific program, please feel free to amend this version, subject to the license or contact me for assistance.

2. This model is by no means comprehensive or finalized – I welcome comments, or suggested substitutions or subtractions using the form below. Please note I didn’t say “additions” – as Antoine de Sainte-Exupery said, “A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Team diagrams can become Frankenstein-like very quickly, both visually and intelligibly. With your help we can make this simpler. And if you don’t like the model, remember, you get what you paid for.

3. Please review the Creative Commons License associated with the file. In short, you are not allowed to sell this, even if you modify it, and the original author (me) must always be credited appropriately.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

 

Exhibit A on my wife's behalf

Anybody who thinks I dwell in an ivory tower of music education, content to comment from afar, is sadly mistaken; as one of perhaps two Abreu Fellows who have at least one child, I’m aware how profoundly my daughter will be affected by all the choices my wife and I make for her.

Case in point: the other day my wife and I were talking with my brother and his fiancée by when he had the unmitigated folly to ask us what instrument we were eventually going to start our daughter on. I initially thought the question might be premature, given the daughter in question is barely 15 months old, but apparently my wife and I will need the time to figure this out. In a rare display of familial discord, my wife the pianist immediately replied “Piano!” while her husband the ex-pianist/hornist/conductor (in chronological order) immediately said “Violin!”

The fiancée then raised an interesting point, particularly for someone not active within music. She suggested that piano would have a gentler learning curve and be far easier on parental ears than a ¼ size violin being played out of tune- and she’s right. I recall Joel Smirnoff’s comment in the March Strad article that “The child wants to be rewarded with sound,” and there’s definitely an element of instant gratification (and intonation) on the piano that may not be there for the violin.

How strong that element is I don’t know. I get the impression that as many children drop out of solitary piano studies as they do solitary violin studies, unable to achieve the level of proficiency necessary to find the activity intrinsically motivating. (More on that here) There’s another issue worth mentioning: piano is by default a solitary pursuit, whereas violin can encompass a group – and therefore social – element. And of course, there’s a financial/real estate element too: pianos are much larger and much more expensive than violins.

So I’m obviously pleading my case, at this point. And the lack of immediate intonation on violin might even be an asset, helping students acquire, even protractedly, a finite appreciation for pitch and quality of sound that a piano cannot generally impart.

The strongest argument I can think of in favour of piano is that it demands the development of an advanced degree of musical literacy, the ability to track, comprehend and execute multiple voices at the same time. I’ve never regretted my early piano studies: as a horn player I was one of the few I met who was immediately comfortable with reading parts in bass clef, and as a conductor I then had no difficulty adjusting to multiple staves of musical information. I’ve applied that literacy to my very late violin studies to some…some advantage as well.

Well, say the Solomonic, what about letting the child study both? I’m not sure that would be a kindness to my daughter. I have no intention of being the kind of parent who schedules every last one of his child’s minutes. I do want her to understand that hard work and effort is a prerequisite to finding any activity enjoyable, so that she develops that essential degree of self-efficacy required for any pursuit, but I also want her to have fun being a kid… a concept I think is rapidly forgotten today. Adulthood can be crappy enough at times, as we all know, so why inflict that on any person sooner than necessary? Please weigh in below…

And now, introducing Guest Blogger Mrs. Theresa Govias

Theresa and the object of the disagreement

I have always thought that piano was the ideal instrument to start children on. As a piano teacher I started children as young as 4 and they all did very well. One of the primary advantages is that they start learning to read music immediately, which then can be transmitted to any other instrument they decide to try. However, it does seem that most violinists start learning their instrument from a very young age, so maybe to be good at the violin you do have to start at the age of two. In that case I wouldn’t want my daughter to be denied the chance to play violin well because I stubbornly think that piano is the best instrument. But I do think that regardless of whether we start her on violin or not, I will still try to teach her piano at some point. I think it has transferrable skills that are invaluable to being a good all around musician.

 

The latest concept in American educational reform

I am happy – nay, ecstatic – to announce that el Sistema worldwide has been rendered entirely redundant, obsolete and unnecessary thanks to Mr. Gene Marks, who in a two page blog on Forbes.com provided a simple and elegant solution to poverty, social problems and inequality of opportunity. The best part is that his point can be summarized in just four words: be smarter, work harder.

I don’t think any more scorn and derision is necessary to expose the column for the racist imbecility that it is. The good news is that the blogosphere erupted with condemnations and denunciations, so it seems Mr. Marks is in a philosophical minority.

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law, they're still in full vigor, I presume? "

I’m uncharacteristically angered by this piece, probably because this simplistic position, which has been utterly disproven, already has enough (false) currency and needs no encouragement. Marks might have been inspired by front-running Republican leadership candidate Newt Gingrich, who earlier this month suggested that children should be paid to do janitorial and clerical work in their schools, because they have “nobody around them who works.” ‘Tis the season, surely.

For my international readership, this passes for political discourse and social philosophy over here.

There are actually two obvious Sistema connections here. The first is that this reinforces how engaging with literature, however motivated, is clearly very beneficial for educational and social purposes. Fryer proved this in one discipline, Venezuela in another. I make no secret of the fact that I consider education the imparting of multiple literacies – including conventional alphabetic, numeracy, and as importantly, musical literacy, with my personal definition of the term encompassing the ability to both comprehend and manipulate the relevant symbol systems. My position on literacy in music education is controversial, I’ll admit, but I stand by it, and I believe that studies such as Fryer’s bear me out.

The second connection may surprise some, but a large number of children in Sistema in Venezuela are paid for their participation. There is a scholarship system in place in which children can qualify for a modest stipend, to encourage them to stay in the program. Since there is no tuition cost at all to students in Fundabol programs, this should not be confused with the Catch-22 of need-based aid. The payment reflects the reality in developing countries that children are viewed as financial assets to their families, contributing to the household economy from a very early age, rather than the liability they are considered in the developed world. Without the payments, familial financial pressures might otherwise force children out of music programs and into part time jobs… like cleaning schools…when they could be learning and growing in the one time of their life they should be able to do both of those unfettered by material constraint.

Mr. Gingrich, we agree. We should pay children to read great literature. It has manifest educational and social benefits. It’s not a foreign idea to be immediately despised; it was hatched in America. It’s not socialist or morally objectionable; it’s just early exposure to capitalism in that it concretely rewards effort. Just please don’t limit the definition of literature to the written word.

 

The Jefferson Memorial

As of last Thursday, I’m an American. Well, permanent resident, at least, which means that my Creator has apparently altered the unalienable rights with which I was endowed. I have exchanged my Canadian claim to Peace, Order and Good Government for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Jefferson definitely had a way with words, and how he chose to express the aspirations of the fledgling nation is worth consideration. The right is to the Pursuit of Happiness, rather than a right to happiness itself. It’s a phrase –and objective- that seems reasonable, realistic, and even motivating. It places the onus for achieving said happiness squarely on the citizen (or in my case, the permanent resident), rather than upon the state, and as such seems to have become the basis in largest part for the American philosophy that good government (not one of my rights anymore, alas) should in the very least ensure minimal interference with this process beyond the reasonable norms of social contract.

That’s the theory, at any rate, and although in theory there’s no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.

The problem lies in the assumptions implicit within Jefferson’s noble idea – that there is equal access to the opportunity to avail oneself of that right. Government role and responsibility in this regard is formally acknowledged through provision of a public education system. “The Commonwealth requires the education of the people as the safeguard of order and liberty,” as it says in stone on the exterior corbel of the Boston Public Library, with “order and liberty” being the base Lockean requirement for the effective pursuit of happiness.

The face of anomie in 2011

But when that education is grossly unequal or variable in quality and comprehensiveness, as we recognize it is in the United States, then access to the opportunity to pursue happiness is severely curtailed. Large numbers of young people enter the workforce not just ill-equipped for, but incapable of navigating the social and economic environment in order to advance themselves. The American Dream becomes an unobtainable fantasy. Social capital is restricted (Dr. Ruth Wright of UWO articulated this wonderfully in Montreal on Nov 17), class stratification deepens, wealth disparity grows and a Durkheimian anomie ensues as the disempowered, disconnected, disenfranchised group reacts in self-destructive, destabilizing ways.

Which is why the OECD survey also points out that the answer isn’t a Marxian redistribution of wealth, but improving and leveling educational quality. Not achieving equalization of educational outcomes, the unobtainable and highly socialist fantasy of No Child Left Behind, but ensuring equalization of educational opportunity – a process that demands equal access to music education.

I used to think the major deficiency of Sistema was that in its social benefits it only addressed effect, and not cause, and that at best its ability to influence society would be deferred by at least one generation, subject to establishment of a critical mass. The latter might still be true, but a genuinely universal approach to music education does address cause at the most fundamental level. And regrettably, for music education, quality is right now secondary to accessibility: not enough children have it in any form, be it good or bad.

Music education has to be an integral part of the process of restabilizing society. Reducing funding or access to it under the guise of reprioritizing other social issues is akin to attempting to bail out the sinking ship rather than plugging the holes in the hull. As one of the newest Americans I’m ready and willing to bail, just not forever.

 

In rehearsal with the PGSO

Back in 2004, during one of my previous lifetimes, I rented a Mercedes SL350 Diesel in order to impress my then-girlfriend when I picked her up from Düsseldorf Airport. (It must have worked – the girlfriend is now my wife.) I was en route to the airport early that Saturday morning, when I hit a particularly straight, long and lonely stretch just east of Dortmund on the A2… “A” standing for “Autobahn.”

It was a temptation no man (gender specific?) could resist. I just let the car go, and sure enough, it went. But when the needle hit 240 kph (150 mph) and I still had two inches to go underneath the gas pedal, I desisted, startled but gratified to acknowledge that the car still had much more to give.

Conductors like to compare orchestras to cars – strangely, since the exercise does orchestras a particular disservice. They are living, thinking organisms, all related biological entities of a clearly defined, if endangered genus, but each unique, with a distinct character and temperament. They aren’t mass-produced hunks of machinery, no matter how fine the engineering. But sometimes the sensation of conducting a good orchestra is the same as driving a fancy car down a motorway, unfettered by speed limits. Not a feeling of control, but of release, of being carried.

I had that feeling working with the PGSO. The road wasn’t straight, nor was it level: the climb was severe and the repertoire offered surprising twists, but I was still left with that sensation that there was much more potential there than a single short visit might uncover, more capacity left to explore – and in many dimensions. For the first time I can recall, I was compelled to ask a trombone section to play louder, and a viola section to play softer, both incidents wonderful testaments to the uncommon nature of the orchestra.

That sense of “releasing” also manifested in myself in way that I found very surprising. I’ve spoken publicly and written within this blog about the negative effects of the high intensity/low frequency approach to music making that generally characterizes both the professional and amateur rehearsal environment in North America. With so little time, rehearsals become exercises in efficiency, in which shopping lists of musical issues are tackled in the most surgical of fashions. But like surgery, the experience becomes necessarily anaesthetized. It’s a reality of the industry, and Prince George was no different, schedule-wise. But without any real conscious thought or decision on my part, Sistema concepts are permeating my own approach, against all my training, against all the conductor “conventional wisdom.” In Prince George I tried to give musicians the time and space to hear, diagnose and fix problems with minimal intervention and guidance from me. And they did, of course, allowing me to focus more on music than mechanics. I didn’t think this was possible or even prudent in the professional context, but upon reflection I think the results were as good or better than they might have been with the profoundly dissatisfying but more common shopping list approach. Who would have thought that relaxed, happy musicians would perform better than highly stressed, unfulfilled ones?

Once my eyesight was restored after the blinding flash of the obvious, I made the unhappy discovery of another major divide remaining between my own philosophy and practice. After the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, the audience spontaneously burst into applause, but like the snobbish classical musician I was trained to be I didn’t acknowledge it. I hereby offer an open, unconditional apology to everyone there for that omission. Applause is the most basic participatory gesture in music making, and in any context is to be received gratefully and acknowledged. I thank the excellent principal cello of the PGSO, Sebastian Oestertag, for reminding me of this. Not applauding between movements is a performing tradition in the most Mahlerian of senses – something artificial, unjustified, and historically inaccurate. I’m delighted the attendees thought enough of the performance to express their appreciation, and I deeply regret discouraging them by my inaction. I won’t make that mistake again.