In terms of its sociopolitical balance sheet, Sistema’s greatest asset has also been its greatest liability: its proximity to, if not inextricable association with, the Chavismo governments
The Problem Part 6: where in our search for solutions we pick on a theoretical middle school band instructor
The history of music education as a whole is essentially one of excellent outcomes for a chosen few being achieved through manifestly anti-social if not unethical means.
The Problem part 5: Molehill or Mountain?
To describe Sistema’s fall as inevitable is an abdication of responsibility: the failure of the movement must be viewed as an opportunity (perhaps the best in history) we were simply incapable of leveraging through our own pedagogical paralysis.
The Problem Part 4: the indoxination of musicians
Being nice, being friendly, being polite is so alien to group music making that apparently it looks like praxial innovation.
It’s official, Sistema doesn’t work
There’s a study circulating which purports to show that El Sistema-style/inspired music interventions at three separate US-based programs had no discernable impact.
Sistema is Dead – and “THE RESPONSE”
There’s a certain charming simplicity and predictability to the remnants of the Sistema movement, vestigial though they may be. Publish a deliberately hyperbolic polemic on the demise of the word, and you can set your watch to THE RESPONSE.
Sistema is dead – a post mortem
As author of what has been labeled "the original blog" on Sistema, I reluctantly accept the responsibility of writing its obituary. Where to begin... Sistema was born in the 1970s as a conventional elitist youth orchestra, founded by a career civil servant with conducting ambitions... Or: Sistema was born in the late 1990s in Venezuela … Continue reading Sistema is dead – a post mortem
Reflections on 10 years in Sistema
There’s much less now to say about Sistema except perhaps “requiescat in pace.”
Impoverished Improv
I’m tired of being stomped like a foot-action player piano and then being told I’m empowered and improvising.
The Search for SIGnificance
Whither (wither?) the Sistema Special Interest Group?
Jonathan Andrew Govias 