Preserving Traditional Venezuelan Music

For many years, El Sistema in Venezuela has placed an emphasis on studying, teaching, and playing the rich folk musics of the country.  Now a new article in Smithsonian Magazine highlights those folk traditions and describes the importance of preserving them.  The article, “Venezuelan Music: A Light in the Darkness,” is by Patricia Abdelnour, who was Deputy Director of Internal Relations for Venezuela’s Fundacion Musical Simon Bolivar, and more recently, Executive Director for Acción Social por la Música, an El Sistema program in Spain. Readers will be interested in this vivid description of Venezuela’s intensive efforts to keep folk music alive. Readers will be interested to learn about this vivid description of Venezuela’s intensive efforts to keep folk music alive.  And in our sorrow at the current suffering of the Venezuelan people, we can take heart in reading about this spark of hope and beauty in their country.