Jonathan Andrew Govias

  The City of London might lay claim to being a place of special significance for the el Sistema international movement. After the Proms performance in 2007, the SBYO returned for an acclaimed residency at Southbank Centre in 2009, which was  followed by a Fesnojiv string quartet residency earlier this fall. Southbank Centre again will … Continue reading London El Sistema Event!

  I took the pictures above at a rehearsal of the new youth orchestra for children under the age of 16, during my visit to Caracas in early July.  This young woman was surely one of the youngest, if not the youngest musician in the orchestra: feet barely able to reach the floor, eyes barely … Continue reading The Gravity of Peer Instruction

  And once again I'm delighted to say that, exactly one week following the publication of my article in The Strad, another from my pen/laptop has appeared in the September issue of Canada's classical music magazine, La Scena, as previously promised.The article is available via the above website in both PDF and Flash format, but … Continue reading Published again, apparently

  ...Delighted, actually, to make my second appearance (first as an author) in this very prestigious publication. It would be poor recompense to the publisher were I to make the article available online here, but there's an excerpt available at the Strad site here and at some point I may be able to provide the … Continue reading Publish and be…

In retrospect, the last post wasn't completely different. In fact, it was rather more of the same. Performing in Acarigua always leaves me on an emotional high, with correspondingly maudlin sentiments and blog postings, and it takes about three weeks to return to my normal (I forbear to use adjectives) state. Hey look, it's three … Continue reading Putting the Salz in Salzau

Rodrigo Guerrero, the International Affairs Coordinator Deputy Director of International Affairs for Fesnojiv, is fond of telling people that I’m the only person he knows who has ever said: “I can’t wait to get back to Acarigua.” He’s joking, of course, the suggestion being that Acarigua is essentially the Venezuelan equivalent of Podunk, but I … Continue reading And now for something completely different

The first Monday of my time in Acarigua, I stopped by the office of the núcleo director, Roberto Zambrano, while the orchestra was on break. He was on the phone, in full crisis-prevention mode. The seminario would start in earnest on Tuesday, but the Centro Social was unable to accommodate us until Wednesday, and the … Continue reading The Legend of Bobby Z

It must be one of the near-ubiquitous experiences of childhood: the odious relation or friend of the family who arrives and promptly expresses shock and dismay at the extent to which you've grown. In my case, the remarks were generally treated with well-deserved scorn and indignation. After all, it was the world that changed around … Continue reading Triumphs from Minor to Major