Celebrating the Laureate of the Eighth Glenn Gould Prize: A Visit to Caracas

Brian Levine, Managing Director of the Glenn Gould Foundation, wrote in part:

El Sistema has demonstrated conclusively that music education is the gateway to lifelong learning and a better future.

Details to follow.

To view a photo of the event, please CLICK HERE.

The doors opened and we were inundated with children from the housing project. That alone is a minor miracle. I can remember staring out the door of Cave9 for the first few weeks wondering how to overcome their suspicion. There are so many children coming at once that we have had to implement some rules–no balls inside, drum pads and sticks outside, and good behavior while waiting for lessons. The real secret will be more teachers, which we are working on. Like all children, their patience does not match their attention span.

There is one young man who is a nightmare. He is everywhere, hands on everything, with unbounded curiosity and an attention span measured in nanoseconds. He had to be physically extracted from lessons as he grabbed at bows and strummed guitars held by other hands. Yet he gave me a hug and called me “mom” before rushing out the door to pursue his next thought.

Matthew from Hill Elementary came with a family friend so that he could have lessons on more of the instruments he is interested in–which, so far, is every instrument he’s encountered. Amazingly, he’s got a gift for them all. The friend sat shaking her head at the apparent chaos, but I soon turned to find her helping Ashari and Angelica–whom she’d never met–work through the packets of music worksheets they’d found in my box. Matthew is a bit shy, but when he discovered our flute, he did not hesitate to go upstairs and ask the piccolo player (who was in a piano lesson) how to make it work. He did cello, piano, guitar, and trumpet lessons. He dabbled with the flute, clarinet, and drums. He made fast friends with Ashari, Angelica and the others taking multiple lessons. To him, Cave9 is a candy store and he has a fortune to spend.

The last two times that Shaina has come with her family, she has sat in a corner doing homework. An eighth grader, she wasn’t interested in music lessons until her mom suggested she bring her piccolo. While her mom took a voice lesson, Shaina climbed up on stage to sit with her brother Thurston (sax) and Matthew (trumpet). In five minutes, she was drawn in. By the time her mother was begging her to PLEASE pack up, she was grinning broadly over Nick’s invitation to play in our youth orchestra, wanting to know when, where, how soon she could join.

A young lady arrived with a violin slung over her shoulder and trailing her friend who plays cello. They both play in their high school orchestra nearby, which we were not even aware existed and will be investigating so that we can collaborate. My daughter Molly was so impressed with these two students. She said that they hung on every word she uttered, eager to improve their skills. Molly said that she can help the violinist some, but that this young lady will soon need a dedicated violin teacher. Of course, Molly is excited about how much she can teach the cellist. She begged them to come back today.

I wandered upstairs at one point to look for more drum pads. Lauren had three people playing chords on the keyboards while she sang “Amazing Grace”. All four faces were glowing. Amazing grace, indeed.

Harry was outside teaching drums on the sidewalk. He started with pads and sticks, but children kept coming inside to ask for one more piece of the drum kit. Then one came in to ask for ear plugs, so I went to check on the class. As I rounded the corner, a student did a loud roll on the snare. Harry gave me a grin as a police car cruised slowly by. A fashionable twenty-something in leathers and carrying a helmet was looking on bemusedly. He had stopped for directions but was fascinated by the scene on the sidewalk. Picture it: five inner city children still in their school uniforms, a tall blond college freshman whose favorite word is ‘dude’, a drum set, and far too many drum sticks scattered alongside the graffiti-covered wall of a rock club in downtown Birmingham. A white board leans against the lamp post with a diagram of today’s lesson and everyone is intent on mastering this rudiment–playing as loudly as possible while rush hour traffic rolls past.

Jaime, that’s not even all that happened in just three hours. I feel I am packing more meaning into each day of my life now than in all the near-half-century that has gone before. When I go around to the teachers to tell them it’s time to stop, they look at me with shock. “It’s 6:00 already?” We invite and encourage any and everyone to experience this, to come check it out, to get involved. Molly’s already making plans to take this back to Louisville when she goes in the fall. She says she may be doing it alone, but that this idea has got to be shared, got to be spread everywhere.

Every Wednesday Bronx Public School 56’s auditorium is silent except for the sound of violins as professional musician Kokoe Tanaka instructs a violin orchestra of fourth-graders. The violinist’s presence is the work of principal Priscilla Sheeran, who thinks that music is critical to education.

Music fell silent 30 years ago when the city’s Department of Education slashed art from the core curriculum. Now principals and politicians who believe in the power of art to inspire and educate are shouldering the task of bringing the arts back to public schools.

For the FULL STORY CLICK HERE.

Professor Elise S. Sobol, NYSSMA Chairperson Music for Special Learners, was there; her words to the NYC Council members added weighty lift to the presentation resulting in a consensus that an El Sistema implementation move forward.

A ceremony at NY City Hall is planned some time in early June, when Maestro Abreu will be an honored guest at a GALA Concert by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas.

Infinite thanks to Ms. Olivia Koppell whose very hard work led to this.

We have begun a program somewhat modeled after El Sistema here in Birmingham, AL. In February, we started teaching free music lessons at a local rock club that donated space and after school at Hill Elementary (70+ children!). Recently we began free lessons at the AL Jazz Hall of Fame. I cashed in all my savings to get us started. My partner has donated all his instruments. The results are so wonderful–bringing together people across music genre, zip code, generation, race. Read about it here:
http://metroyo.blogspot.com/ and here:

http://jeane-metroyo.blogspot.com

/
As we await our 501(c)3 determination, we are struggling to find enough instruments and funds to pay our dedicated teachers at least for gas. But the program has proved to be so obviously a way to improve our community that we are determined to do whatever it takes to continue.

Posted by scrollworks at 06:01 AM : Apr 14, 2008
………………………………………………………………….

…I got in touch with Jeane Goforth.

She exemplifies the good ol’ American “CAN DO” attitude that points to a better future for the children of Birmingham, Alabama and wherever else
Jose Antonio Abreu’s innovative ideas get a foothold.

This was her reply:
………………………………………………………………..
I’m just a ‘music mom’ who volunteered one too many times.

Nick, however, is very gifted musically and is an amazing teacher.

We are so passionate about this. I have cashed in all my savings to get
us started (a mere $37,500–I was a stay-at-home mom until just recently).

Funding is a major issue right now as we wait on 501c3 status.

But the effect on our community even after such a short time is so
profound that we’ll do whatever it takes to continue.

When we are in Cave9, a local rock club, with lessons going on in every
corner, with people from all backgrounds, all ages, and all races
connecting with music, I am so excited about the possibilities for true
change.

My vision is to have people think of a youth orchestra with a racial
rainbow of faces when they think of Birmingham instead of the grim past
that always pops into people’s heads now.

Any help and guidance that your organization can give us would be a true
gift.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
–
Jeane Goforth
http://scrollworks.org/
http://www.myorch.org/
http://metroyo.blogspot.com/
http://jeane-metroyo.blogspot.com/
http://blog.al.com/goforth/
………………………………………………..

You can watch it by clicking HERE.

For the trailer of a forthcoming documentary, please CLICK HERE.

–Jose Antonio Abreu
Revelemos a nuestros niños la belleza de la música y la música revelará a nuestros niños la belleza de la vida.

“Let us reveal to our children the beauty of music and music shall reveal to our children the beauty of life.”
[Translation by ES-NYC founding member Jose Bergher: http://elsistemanyc.net/who-we-are/.
For the full text of Maestro Abreu’s acceptance speech, please CLICK HERE.