“Ask him about it, and he'll tell you he owes it all to a remarkable program
in his native Venezuela, a social program that has used music to change his own
life and the lives of millions of children there. Venezuelans call it "El Sistema"
(The System), and Dudamel wants to bring it to the U.S., where he believes
it can work wonders.”
These words were spoken by CBS reporter, Bob Simon, as he introduced the great Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, the 29 year old, internationally acclaimed conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, on a recent “60 Minutes” television program. He then went on to describe Dudamel’s accomplishments since coming to the United States, as by far the youngest maestro and the most exciting conductor of any major orchestra in the world.Amazing as this achievement was, the real story, which Simon went into great detail to elaborate, revolved around the work of a retired Venezuelan economist, social reformer and amateur musician, Dr. Jose’ Antonio Abreu, who founded “El Sistema” (The System) as a vehicle to deal with the large and growing problem of poverty, crime and illiteracy in the Barrios of Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela. He was convinced that exposure to the discipline and spiritual richness provided by classical music can achieve personal and social change among the most disenfranchised and hopeless sections of society.
Starting in 1975 with an idea that children would learn the discipline needed to succeed in life by exposure to classical music, he enlisted the help of a few fellow musicians, some donated instruments and 11 students and began his first “cell”. This concept quickly exploded as parents and students realized the great satisfaction and rewards derived from their efforts. It rapidly grew to include thousands of children from ages as early as 2 years, scattered in areas of the society spread across Venezuela. It now involves over 270,000 participants, organized in at least 60 children orchestras, 200 youth orchestras, 30 professional orchestras and many choirs, producing world class music. In addition there are various workshops teaching construction and repair of instruments, and a variety of specialized clinics providing remedial and therapy programs for impaired children. The great majority of these facilities are provided free of charge to all participants.
Since its inception, El Sistema has produced over 800,000 graduates. The orchestras have performed all over the world with universal acclaim and have produced musicians who now play in most of the world’s greatest orchestras. The most prominent and most respected product is Dudamel, who presently leads the Los Angeles Orchestra. Like every disciple of the System, he is driven to spread the concept all over the world and in fact, as Simon suggested:
“Dudamel was so sought after he could have conducted almost anywhere.
He chose Los Angeles in part because he thought it was a good place to
transplant the system to the U.S”.
Since arriving in Los Angeles, Dudamel has donated a great deal of time to developing the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA), with the explicit intention of following the pattern set in Venezuela to “transform the lives of thousands of L.A. youth through music”, and then by example, to spread the message nationwide. By all accounts, this venture has already begun to produce positive results, and in addition to Los Angeles, cells have been started in Baltimore and Chicago.
Even as we celebrate the genius of Dr. Abreau’s efforts and recognize the unqualified success of his system in the rehabilitation and preservation of thousands of young lives in the barrios of Venezuela, let us not forget that there are lessons to be learnt that can be applied to our own society. With the increasing incidence of violence in our schools, and indiscriminate drug use among the young , there is urgent need to address the deteriorating situation.
In this regard, I am convinced that our educational system, by its increasing liberal and less structured approach has lost its way. This is compounded by the lack of parental influence and increasing exposure to the negative effects of the modern TV/Video Games/Texting capabilities which serve to cheat the children of the all important opportunity of developing self-image. We are producing a generation of uncontrolled, self-serving people who have been left unsupervised, and have never been given the opportunity to really know who they are.
The strength of “El Sistema” is that it succeeds in attracting young minds and by dint of commitment and discipline, produces a mature, confident individual capable of carrying out complex, meaningful and rewarding activity. Whether this translates to a career in music or otherwise, the end result is the production of a meaningful individual with a positive attitude to life and to society.
Gretchen Nielsen, the YOLA philharmonic's education director, summarized these sentiments very accurately, thus:
"I think we're really striving to change the landscape of Los Angeles.
We want to see these kids graduate. We want to see them just connect
We want to see these kids graduate. We want to see them just connect
to the world in ways that they might not have normally otherwise,
….And we want to see it across this city."
This indeed is the real lesson to be learnt from the Barrios of Venezuela, and from the genius of a retired Venezuelan economist with a love for music who built “El Sistema” with “religious zeal, based on his unorthodox belief that what poor Venezuelan kids needed was classical music” (Bob Simon).
Perhaps the world’s politicians, teachers and parents will one day wake up to their responsibilities, and take back control of the children from the streets, drug dealers, television, video games, texting and facebook, and help them reach their full potential.
........The Barrios have taught us that this is possible!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment