the nature of advocacy: not changing what people say, but what people do. The image of the bureaucrat gleefully snatching violins out of the hands of infants is a myth. Treating public officials, or those who just don't get it, with scorn and derision invites a similar degree of disrespect and disregard in return
The Venezuelans don't do "conferences," they do "seminarios", their word for "high intensity short-term music camps." Making music is a central part of the experience. It's not about the teachers, it's about the kids and the music.
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 … Continue reading Sistema weekend in Ottawa
Until education is viewed as the acquisition of multiple literacies for life-long learning rather than the timely regurgitation of factoids for standardized testing, music can’t compete in the educational sphere
Music cannot be single purpose. The social element it offers is critical, but it's not the only one of importance or value.
...The part of the experience that has stayed with me the longest was the opportunity to engage with the music on a completely different level, to go beyond playing it to a place where I started to understand it, to appreciate its architecture and narrative experientially, even if I lacked the knowledge to deconstruct it theoretically. The difference was no more than frequency and repetition, but music had finally begun to mean something more to me.
I occupied my mandated daily half hour by playing through things as best I could, trying to play fewer wrong notes each time without any conscious strategy or method, in a pseudo-Bachian optimism that if I were to hit most of the right keys at roughly the right time, the device would in fact play itself.
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.
Jonathan Andrew Govias 