It is admittedly very difficult to envision music education as a whole, let alone Sistema, being embraced in some extremely conservative fiscal and philosophical environments – but not impossible. But as England has demonstrated, being reasonable, realistic and respectful has paid dividends.
The United Kingdom (encompassing the separate regions and governments of Scotland, England, Wales and N. Ireland) has a long history with Sistema in terms of both núcleo development and presenting Venezuelan ensembles...and the situation in England proper is about to change dramatically!
Canadian núcleos are some of the oldest in North America; Canadian universities have hosted the first academic conferences related to el Sistema; a national foundation presented the Símon Bolívar Orchestra in its largest venue to date and formally honoured Maestro Abreu's achievements in 2008; and a Canadian youth orchestra has set the current gold standard internationally in advocating for and securing major government funding.
the Orkidstra program will step into the limelight between March 30 and April 1st, as they co-host the Símon Bolívar String Quartet of Venezuela with the Ottawa Chamber Music Society for a symposium and performances.
“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.”
Statistically speaking, the expansion of music education programming has been accompanied by a significant rise in violent activity – a warning for all against offering simplistic comparisons.
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 effecting even how we sit in a chair - as much as the inverse.
There’s a lot of money in private music instruction. It’s one of the most stable and lucrative educational markets, and could present a very valuable income stream to Sistema programs while diminishing the “poor kids only” perception, promoting integration and mollifying sponsors too.
Here is something completely arbitrary, compiled in an utterly unscientifically 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
A free logic model for El Sistema programs, usage of which is governed by a Creative Commons License.
Jonathan Andrew Govias 