March might have come in like a lamb, after the mildest winter Boston (my place of residence) has seen in decades, but it’s going out like a lion thanks to the Leading Note Foundation Symposium on Social Change through Music in Ottawa this weekend.
If you haven’t registered, there’s still time. Information is available through the website above, and the full Symposium agenda is now available, as well as the official press release describing the weekend’s events. I have the pleasure and privilege of leading off on Saturday morning, and having been up until 7am the last two days writing my talk, and being assured of doing the same for the next three days refining and rehearsing it, I can say with some certainty that I’ll be doing something quite different. Those who have heard past keynotes know that I’ve taken the approach of deconstructing el Sistema, or framing it in the context of what I call the “Western European Pedagogical Tradition,” unkindly abbreviated as WEPT. On Saturday morning I’m going to attempt to assemble Sistema in the broader context of all education. This isn’t quite the academic equivalent of ten somersets undertaken on solid ground, but having been some days in preparation, a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Or double your money back.
You are invited to join me and several other social-minded music people for dinner on Friday evening. I don’t know where and when just yet, but we convened similarly in Montréal after the Symposium in November, and it was really a very pleasant way to connect and have long, wandering conversations for which symposia breaks are entirely inadequate. Use the Connect form to get in touch if you’d like to join us. It might be 2 people, 3, it might be 10.
The Hendersons will all be there
Late of Pablo Fanque’s Fair, what a scene…
See you in Ottawa!
Jonathan Andrew Govias 