Gustavo Dudamel

There are seasons in any movement. The beginning, that electric moment when a new idea catches fire, is unforgettable. So is the end, when a movement gains a permanent foothold in society. But the middle—the developing stage—is different. The middle is where the path is no longer clear, where the just cause and the strategies for seeing it through are both tested. It’s my impression that, in many places of the world, El Sistema-inspired programs find themselves in that adolescent stage.

These growing years are critical to our future as a movement—just as the adolescent years are critical to our students’ growth. Here are a few discoveries being made by U.S. programs I’m familiar with, shared with the hope that they resonate with programs around the world.

Every other week this season, I wrote updates to my Los Angeles Philharmonic colleagues—a small, internal note meant to keep our broader institution abreast of what the Learning Department was up to. On the surface, it could be viewed as mundane: a calendar snapshot, a few highlights, the ever-important statistics everyone needs. But as I scrolled back through nine months of messages, I realized the depth they carry. These were not only stories about music lessons, concerts, and special events. They were testaments to the impact of connection built across programs, networks, and industries.

Many years of research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health on Big Noise Govenhill provide the deepest evidence of our field’s social and economic impact.

The new documentary El Canto de las Manos goes behind the scenes of a 2022 production of Beethoven’s Fidelio, performed in sign language for the first time in honor of the deaf composer.

Gustavo Dudamel isn’t the only master musician in his family. His dad, trombonist Oscar Dudamel, released a new album, Sueño Alcanzado (A Dream Accomplished) in May of this year, with original compositions that fuse the classic sounds of salsa with jazz and bolero influences.

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.

“Throughout the entire concert, the young musicians were free to laugh. And so was the audience…Music was being felt and lived in another sphere.”

Isn’t this a description of how we would all love our students to experience music, at some point in their learning journey?

“As the world falls apart, these children unite it through music.” These are the opening remarks from El Sistema maestro Gustavo Dudamel in Side by Side’s new documentary, celebrating over ten years of collective music-making.