the world ensemble

El Sistema Japan welcomed the musicians of the Ensemble Lara Somos, from Venezuela, at Japan’s El Sistema Festival 2018 last month.  Ensemble Lara Somos gave a number of presentations, and were joined by Japanese Sistema students in a gala concert conducted by Enluis Montes Olivar at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater on 1 December.

On December 16th, El Sistema Greece was proud to be part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center’s “Christmas World” concerts, playing festive music from around the world. They were joined by the Latin Brass Connection, an ensemble consisting of members of the Venezuelan Simon Bolivar Trumpet Ensemble.

NEOJIBA in Brazil honored their 2018 accomplishments with a week-long Facebook campaign called #RetrospectivaNEOJIBA (NEOJIBA Retrospective). The program posted about the most memorable moments that marked 2018, from benefit concerts and trips to features of new projects. One such post:

Some exciting news from El Sistema Japan: they are planning a music festival in April 2020 as a pre-event for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020 in Tokyo. They will bring together over 200 children from the worldwide El Sistema family, bridging differences in nationality, religion and ability.  The festival represents a celebration of social inclusion—an element essential to open the door for lasting peace. “This is a great opportunity to contribute to world peace by sharing the power of music,” says Yutaka Kikugawa, the founder and executive director of Friends of El Sistema Japan.

Ghetto Classics in Kenya held a special concert on 18th November at St. John’s Community Centre in Korogocho. Students had the opportunity to showcase all of the work they had done this year. In lieu of ticket sales, attendees were encouraged to bring school supplies and clothes.

Here are a few new Sistema ideas in the United States, and an invitation to the join the El Sistema USA National Symposium at the end of January:

La Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín (The Music School Network of Medellín) toured the East Coast of the United States in November. Eighty students from La Red’s 27 music schools across Medellín, Colombia were selected through auditions to be part of this creative journey. These students had the opportunity to analyze and reflect on the city they live in, and to produce a 60-minute musical suite called “Medellín Canción Viva” [Medellín, A Living Song].

On November 13, a combined orchestra and choir composed of students from three Balkan countries performed a concert at the Vatroslav Lisinski Councert Hall in Zagreb, Croatia. Over 300 students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia came together for this performance; it was the first joint performance of these three Balkan El Sistema programs. The Bosnian program “House of Good Tones Srebrenica” was the organizer of the event.

In October, ten teachers from Musica Para la Vida (Music for Life) in Mexico traveled to Berlin, Germany to participate in an international seminar, organized in part by the Federal Association of Cultural Education for Children and Youth of Germany.

Our first two concerts of the second school term were at retirement homes. The first concert was on 29 June at Susanne Grau Heim and the next one was on 18 July at the Katutura Old Age Home. Because 18 July was the birthday of the late Nelson Mandela, we chose to celebrate his centenary by giving our music, time and small gifts to the elderly residents.