July 2019

In June, Sistema in Norwich (England) presented a special concert of music composed by and for their students.  “Sistema Composers” included the premiere of “The Ghost of Grafton Way,” a piece commissioned for the Colegate Núcleo Orchestra from composer and flautist Efraín Oscher; it tells the story of the ghost that haunted the house in Grafton Way, London, where Venezuelan independence heroes Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda met in June 1810.

The Safaricom Youth Orchestra (SYO) is a flagship project of Safaricom Company Ltd., Kenya’s leading mobile phone company, and managed by the Art of Music Ltd. on behalf of the company.  The orchestra is committed to its mission of ‘establishing a youth ensemble that presents the best in personal and collective discipline and development through orchestral music performance’.

Nine years ago, 19 elementary schoolchildren gathered at the Gilbert House, an old house in southwest Atlanta, to begin their journey towards becoming musical artists. Over the course of the following decade, these children were joined by hundreds of others; together, they all practiced, performed, and evolved into dedicated young artists. Some students played string instruments and wind instruments, while others sang. Across the city of Atlanta, Atlanta Music Project (AMP) students have performed at both small community centers and large venues like the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Formation Center, founded in 2005 by the Missionary Society of Saint Paul (MSSP), aims to improve the lives of young people in the Bataan province and to eventually build a vibrant community through its orchestra program.  Father Joseph Cremona (Father Joe), who has been  with the parish since its inception, observed that in the beginning, “the parish center quickly became a safe space where the children could gather instead of roaming around the village streets.”

Why do some innovations make a lasting change in a field?  Think about Apple computers and iPhones.  Billy Beane’s 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball team that brought deep statistical analysis of players into the profession.  Venezuela’s El Sistema.

It’s 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon in Quiindy, and the Gaete household is humming. Silvia is humming Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 while she prepares dinner for the family with her husband, Juan, who taps along rhythmically as he sets the table.

I first discovered Interlochen as a young child. The campus is just seven miles from my grandparents’ summer cottage, and my love of classical music was inspired by Interlochen Public Radio.

EPIC Music, in St. Johnsbury, VT, was one of four El Sistema-inspired organizations recently invited to partner with a team of Duke University undergraduates to explore parent engagement in El Sistema USA member organizations. Parent engagement is an important goal for us; we have talked for more than a year about offering violin workshops for parents, so that they can understand our students’ challenges and learn how to help their children practice at home.

I went last week to Side By Side By El Sistema Swe- den, an intensive international music camp spon- sored by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in partnership with the city and El Sistema Sweden. Let’s start with the statistics.