Latin America

We just passed the darkest part of the Sistema world year in the Southern Hemisphere and the lightest part of the year in the North—do you know what the BUSIEST place in the Sistema world is all year long?  It’s Sistema Global, especially their Facebook page.

On May 15, 2018, the Colombian national Sistema program Batuta brought together young musicians from all over the country to join in a huge concert paying tribute to Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, who died on March 24th.

It’s even more important than I thought.  The Ensemble and The World Ensemble have published positive pieces in the past about the Collaborative Composition (CC) work that Dan Trahey leads with other teaching artists in support, but this was the first time I witnessed most of the full process.  It is educationally and artistically powerful, and bursting with potential for the El Sistema-inspired movement.

I was in a car on Saturday, March 24th, when in highly Venezuelan fashion, I was texted through WhatsApp with the sad news.  Maestro Abreu had passed.  My knee-jerk reaction was a professional reflex, one honed after many years in Maestro’s office:  confirm the news, get the facts, make a plan, offer assistance… For the rest of the ride, I was furiously typing and calling making sure the information was handled correctly and in as respectful a fashion as he merited.  The sniffling and tears were set aside; there was work to be done.