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Editorial: April 2020

Hillary Harder, ECoSistema Coordinator, Elkhart County, IN 

04-07-2020

For the past year, I have enjoyed meeting with a group of educators and administrators from the El Sistema USA community who seek to collectively define “equity.” Our goal is to educate ourselves about big ideas—systemic access barriers, intersectionality and identity, culturally responsive teaching—and articulate what they mean for us. At the core of these conversations is the idea that El Sistema–inspired programs are uniquely positioned to work toward equity. Maestro Abreu paved the way with his vision of universal access and social change through music education; today, in our North American context, the El Sistema-inspired field must engage with the dynamics of race, class, gender, ability, language, and social factors. If we seek to deeply know and empower our students, these conversations are crucial.

Toolkit to Support Socio-emotional Learning

02-04-2020

Socio-emotional learning (SEL) is increasingly seen as an essential component of success for students in El Sistema-inspired programs. SEL skills like self-awareness, self-management, interpersonal relating skills, and responsible decision-making are naturally developed in strong programs, becoming key to students’ success in fulfilling their life ambitions in or outside of music. Teachers know that to help young people develop these skills, they need intentionality and strong support from families. The Social Emotional Learning Toolkit: Family Engagement is a new guide from Move This World, and may be particularly helpful to you. The 50-page report is practical-minded, aiming to provide everything you need to bring families into active support in strengthening SEL in students.

Academic Achievement Correlated to Engagement with Music in New Canadian Study

02-04-2020

A Canadian study of educational records for more than 110,000 high school students reports that children who had engaged in school-based music activities or music education showed greater academic achievement than did children who had not engaged in music. These differences, which appear independent of demographic and socioeconomic factors as well as prior academic history, were especially acute for students who played instrumental music versus those who did not. The authors of the study, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, highlight potential differences in executive functioning, “motivation-related characteristics,” and social-personal development as pathways enabling greater academic achievement for music participants. A summary of the study by Forbes is available here.

Editorial: February 2020

Bonnie Reagan, Co-Founder & Board President, Oregon BRAVO Youth Orchestras, Portland, OR

02-04-2020

Justice, health and music. What do they have to do with each other? I am a family doctor and a social justice person, raised by a social justice mom. I am also the co-founder of BRAVO Youth Orchestras, an El Sistema program now in its seventh year in Portland, Oregon. I helped start BRAVO because I love music and I know that, in the Sistema world, music strongly supports children to become good citizens and self-actualized people.

Free Arts Management Resources

01-23-2020

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New Research on Bullying Frequency

01-07-2020

We have all read reports affirming that communities, friends and supportive adults are essential to heal kids who are the victims of bullying. El Sistema programs are excellent at providing both kinds of remedies. New research from the University of Missouri shows that those who feel connected to peers who share their interests, and whose families have stronger home-school (or El Sistema program) connection have much lower bullying frequencies.

In-Depth Research Study of Portugal’s Orquestra Geração

Graça Mota and João Teixeira Lopes

03-31-2019

This study emerges within the framework of continuing the work undertaken by CIPEM (Research Centre in Psychology of Music and Music Education), in particular its interest in the relationship between music education and music in the community.

Join the SIMM-posia!

08-12-2018

The first Social Impact of Music Making Research Seminar will be held 5-9 November in Helsinki, Finland at the Sibelius Academy Training Center.

The Busiest Spot on the Sistema Globe

06-27-2018

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.

Around the Sistema World with Hannah

Hannah Whitehouse

06-27-2018

I was fifteen years old. It was the summer of 2012. My dad and I were making the sixteen hour drive up to Interlochen Arts Camp, and I was surfing the web on my iPhone. I began browsing TED talks, when one caught my eye: “The El Sistema music revolution”. For the next seventeen minutes, I sat in awe listening to José Antonio Abreu discuss his founding of a program that changed lives through music. As Maestro Abreu explained the program of social rescue, its structure, and the cultural impact that it has on the people of Venezuela, I grew more and more captivated by the model.

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