Beirut Chants Turns to El Sistema

 
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Beirut Chants Turns to El Sistema

Richard Azoury, Finance Manager, Beirut Chants

04-03-2024

One year ago, our youth music program Beirut Chants El-Sistema was born. The program was the brainchild of Father Toufic Maatouk, Artistic Director of Beirut Chants, which for almost two decades has been producing free concerts of classical, Aramaic, Byzantine, and other musical genres in Beirut every December.

It was not a promising time to be learning or teaching music in Lebanon. The Lebanese pound had depreciated by over 90%, making music lessons a luxury that few could afford. The National Conservatory of Music was mostly non-operational; schools had stopped music classes for lack of funding, and our country’s youth had no means to advance their musical education. In this challenging environment, Father Maatouk turned to the El Sistema model. His mission was to provide access to musical and social learning for underserved young people from public schools and refugee camps across Lebanon.

Anjar, 2024. Photo: Georges Bou-Abdo.

After receiving our first grant from the U.S. Embassy, we solicited the help of two consultants from El Sistema Greece, José Angel Salazar and Francis Gagliardi. José and Francis wrote the handbook we still follow for training instructors in classroom and orchestra pedagogy. Initially, 90 young people signed up, soon joined by 40 students from the Conservatory.

Since then, our students have been rehearsing once a week at La Sagesse University (a site we chose because it still had power in the late afternoons; the price of electricity had caused most public schools to shut their doors promptly at 3:00 p.m.). Students are learning music instruction in true “El Sistema” fashion—in ensembles, and from one another, be they instructors or peers. Students of very different musical abilities—including some who started as complete beginners—have been working together and experiencing the synergistic effects of music instruction based on collective cooperation.

There are no other free programs in our financially collapsed country that also provide instruments, transportation stipends, and free meals on a weekly basis. We are creating an environment that is relaxed but still musically rigorous, where youth from all backgrounds can join together to learn from each other. Every rehearsal includes individual instruction, sectional work, and ensemble work (and, of course, snacks!).

One short year since the program’s beginning, the skills of our young musicians (ages 8–15) have grown exponentially, thanks to their determination, the collaborative atmosphere of rehearsals, and the cohesion of our five music instructors, two choir instructors, and José and Francis. It has been particularly exciting to see parents get involved in their children’s musical development.

Christmas concert 2023 with conductor Fadi Khalil. Photo: Georges Bou-Abdo.

Our first two concerts were thrilling. In the first, we accompanied the Black Alley Band during their visit to Beirut; the second was an outdoor concert commemorating the disastrous August 4 explosion in Beirut in 2020. But perhaps our biggest success has been securing funding for our latest and most ambitious project, El-Sistema “On Wheels.” For the past three months, our youth orchestra has been traveling on buses to bring music into cities and villages across Lebanon. In the process, our young musicians gained a closer understanding of our country’s diverse history, culture, and traditions.

We started touring in late December, beginning with a trip to Deir El-Qamar in the Shouf mountains, where we held a Christmas concert for over 130 children and young people. Our students were treated to a walking tour through the town, giving them a new perspective on Lebanese village life.

On the second trip, we performed an open-air concert for the residents of Anfeh, a seaside town in the north of Lebanon, during Armenian Christmas. This experience also included cultural learning, as our young musicians visited the salt flats to learn about traditional salt production, toured the Deir el-Natour Monastery, and walked to “Anferini,” the city’s picturesque tourist attraction. To their delight, the day ended with a guided tour of the Phoenician ruins on the outskirts of Anfeh.

Tripoli, 2024. Photo: Georges Bou-Abdo.

Since then, we’ve taken two more trips—one to Anjar, in the Bekaa Valley, and another to Tripoli. In addition to spreading music and community, these trips and performances allow our young people to see themselves as artists as well as students.

Many challenges remain to keep this project viable in 2025 and beyond. But our experience so far has convinced us that miracles really do exist. In a short time, Our students have grown so much, and our program has found new ways to grow our musical community. The overall impact of using the El Sistema philosophy has been to transform 70 aspiring musicians/singers into a cohesive whole, and to bring musical joy to many parts of our country. We have been able to offer the hope of a better future and a more productive society. With a firm belief in our musician stars and in the power of togetherness, we can only succeed.

April 2024, Beirut, Beirut Chants El-Sistema, La Sagesse University, Lebanon, National Conservatory of Music, Youth Music Program

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