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The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.

EDITORIAL: Inspiration from Venezuelan Master Teachers

03-01-2019

The U.S. El Sistema-inspired movement felt like “a field” at the El Sistema USA National Symposium in Detroit, Michigan this past January, as we honored our lineage together and shared new ideas about how to advance our practice. The symposium brought together more than 200 Sistema colleagues, representing 80 organizations and hailing from 28 different states, for a day and a half of intensive dialogue and interactive demonstrations.  Elsewhere in this issue we will report on some of the key features of the Symposium, but this editorial focuses on one distinctive aspect of El Sistema:  Venezuela.

Join the Global Leaders Program

03-01-2019

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FROM THE EDITOR, March 2019

03-01-2019

I am lucky enough to have been able to go to Venezuela and see El Sistema in action, during those golden years when the Sistema threw its doors open wide to an international multitude of visiting musicians and Maestro Abreu dreamed of Caracas becoming the Vienna of the 21st century. Sadly, it’s hard to visit Venezuela at all now, and El Sistema struggles with the same desperate economic and political crisis that grips everyone in that beautiful and beleaguered country. For the global Sistema community, the poignant silver lining of the crisis is the evolution of a kind of Sistema diaspora, with many Venezeulan master teachers, teaching artists and conductors working with programs around the world.

The Symposium: A Reflection

03-01-2019

When I landed in Detroit, Michigan on January 29th for the El Sistema USA Symposium, warnings about the extreme winter temperatures were all over the radio, but I needed to find out on my own. So I took a short walk in my Atlanta “winter clothes”: sneakers, a small coat, no gloves. At that moment, I realized that the next time I went outside in Detroit would be to catch the plane back to Atlanta!

The El Sistema USA National Symposium

03-01-2019

It was clear that the 2019 El Sistema USA National Symposium was going to be special when, in the midst of a historic cold spell, over 200 attendees representing 80 different El Sistema-inspired organizations braved sub-zero temperatures to attend. Attendees arrived early for the welcome and filled the ballroom with the type of vibrant energy surrounding a convening of friends for their annual trip. Christine Taylor Conda, the ESUSA board chair, chose to forgo the typical welcome and, instead, immediately had the entire room singing a three-part song to meet and welcome one another, setting a tone of collaboration and camaraderie for the symposium.

Save the Date: Make Music Day will be 21 June

02-10-2019

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Yo Yo Ma and Bach Inspire Students

02-10-2019

Sometimes a vignette captures the essence of a core belief in our practice.  Michael DePasquale, the Project/Personnel Manager for Encore! Sistema Québec in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, recently shared a story that celebrates the way that a learner’s seeing just the right performance—a particularly memorable, excellent one—can awaken the artist’s pathway.

The Ambassadors’ Exchange: February 2019

02-01-2019

In the dictionary, “home” means the house of a family. We all know the importance of having a place to call home, to bring together all people in one place, and, in Sistema, to make the musicians of an ensemble feel more like a family.

Wider reach for the youngest; new fun for the oldest

02-01-2019

Ottawa’s OrKidstra program has innovative programs growing on both ends of the students’ learning journey with them, like bookends.  On the “entry” side is meeting prospective young students in schools.

International Teaching Artist Conference 2020

02-01-2019

For those who read about (or joined virtually with) the hundreds of teaching artist delegates from 26 countries at the ITAC4 (Fourth International Teaching Artist Conference) at Carnegie Hall in New York last September, the dates of ITAC5 have just been announced.  The Orchestra of Dreams, South Korea’s remarkable El Sistema program, will be featured prominently, because ITAC5 will happen in Seoul on 15-17 September 2020, hosted by KACES, the South Korean government’s arts education agency (Korea Arts & Culture Education Service).

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