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EDITORIAL
Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of El Sistema Venezuela

Rodrigo Guerrero, Staff Specialist for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Babson College, Massachusetts, USA; former Associate Director of International Relations and Institutional Development, El Sistema Venezuela

02-05-2025

The Venezuela of 1975 is in sharp contrast to its current reality. Fifty years ago, the country was fully reconstructed after an oppressive military dictatorship and on track for economic growth. That was the context in which a young, brilliant composer and conductor, who also happened to be a gifted politician, used his combined talents to convince the government to support something that felt out of place to officialdom, but, in his vision, right at home.

Global Partnership Leads to Cosmic Collaboration

10-02-2024

EDITORIAL
The Sound of the World

Anis Barnat, Co-founder, El Sistema Greece; Managing Director, Community Arts Network (CAN)

09-04-2024

National and international youth orchestra and choir festivals instill a collaborative mindset in their participants and provide all attendees with powerful, lasting memories. But they are time-consuming to organize, requiring logistical know-how and well-considered, family-flexible safeguarding policies for the children and young people. It’s not only tiring; it’s expensive. And program leaders know firsthand that students progress with or without these national or international festivals. So why bother? What do they offer to young people that their own programs can’t provide?

My answer, in a word: perspective.

The Citizens of the World Festival

Lauren Rausch, YOLA National Festival Violin Faculty

09-04-2024

For the last eight years, I’ve coached violinists for the YOLA National Festival. Each summer, it is a remarkable thing to walk into the first sectional on the first day and witness an exceptional level of preparation from 18 violinists who, for the most part, don’t know each other and have never played together—a group of students that have made a commitment to each other before even meeting one another. This is what defines the YOLA National Festival: the dedication and integrity of all participants, a spirit that lives in the YNF students and also in the staff and the incredible faculty who return each summer. It is a special and profoundly devoted community, something I have not witnessed elsewhere.

World Orchestra Week at Carnegie Hall

James Ross, Orchestra Director, NYO-USA and NYO2-USA; Music Director, Alexandria Symphony, VA, USA; Director of Orchestral Studies, Curtis Institute of Music

09-04-2024

Carnegie Hall’s World Orchestra Week festival in August was a week of one “WOW!” after another, as seven youth orchestras from five different continents joined forces in and around Carnegie Hall to play for and with each other, to share singular musical works and ethos from their countries, and to show us all what the next generation’s Wishes for Our World might be.

El Sistema Returns to the United Nations to Pay Tribute to Maestro Abreu

05-17-2023

The National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela returned to Geneva this past April for a special performance at United Nations Headquarters, marking almost a decade since the visit of El Sistema founder Maestro José Antonio Abreu.

Spotlight on Venezuela

04-18-2023

El Sistema programs, mark your calendars: the second Global Congress of El Sistema will be held at the Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música in Caracas, Venezuela on September 10–24, 2023.

Using Music Learning to Help Our Young People Rebuild Affective Ties

María Guinand, Artistic Director, Fundación Schola Cantorum de Venezuela; Vice President, International Federation for Choral Music

08-04-2021

The pandemic has not been just a biological or epidemiological problem. It has also created enormous disruptions in our social and affective lives. Especially in the spaces of education and social interaction, it has inhibited all the imperceptible links that unite us and that allow us to interact socially. For our children and youth, this has produced reluctance, lack of interest and enthusiasm, and, in some cases, depression. A year of isolation changes people—especially young people—and their perspectives on what is important in life.

Orchestras of the Venezuelan Diaspora

The Ensemble Editors

05-05-2021

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 5.4 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide—one of the largest displacement crises in the world. Many among these are former students, teachers, and leaders of El Sistema, Venezuela’s national youth orchestra program, founded by Maestro José Antonio Abreu in 1975; this growing diaspora has been shaping and enriching cultures in host countries. Displaced Venezuelans continue to make beautiful music, and not just as teachers and solo performers. Across the world, Venezuelan-founded orchestras continue to pop up, no less technically brilliant than those that made El Sistema a globally adapted model. One article in the magazine Guataca, which promotes Venezuelan music and musical initiatives around the world, reminds us of that continuing legacy.

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