Venezuela’s “El Sistema” Inspires Music in Michigan

Venezuela’s successful state-funded youth music education program, “El Sistema,” continues to have an impact abroad. Most recently, it inspired a similar initiative by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in Michigan. Their program, called “String Team,” offers affordable group classes in stringed instruments to elementary school students.

Venezuela’s “El Sistema” has reached about a quarter of a million young people in poor areas and produced classical music stars such as Gustavo Dudamel. Like “El Sistema,” the  “String Team” is about getting young people to learn and improve their lives through music. Read more here. In case you missed it, don’t forget to check out the documentary about “El Sistema” on CBS’ 60 Minutes.

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Venezuela’s Favorite “Dude” Heads to L.A.

Wondering what you’ll have to look forward after Obama’s inauguration comes and goes and all the parties are over?

Here’s something: the arrival of “the Dude.” That’s right, Venezuela’s master conductor Gustavo Dudamel comes to the U.S. to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic next season.

He’s in New York this month conducting Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, and after that, he’s off to California.

Check out the latest from The Economist.

UPDATE: Somehow we missed this article from the Guardian about “El Sistema,” the world-famous youth music education program on which Dudamel was weaned.

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Venezuela’s Dudamel Helps Celebrate Israel

Last Sunday and Monday, the Venezuelan conductor joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to perform shows at Carnegie Hall commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel.

According to this New York Times review, Dudamel achieved a “killer reading” of Tchaikovsky.

UPDATE: the Washington Post weighs in on the Carnegie Hall show, calling Dudamel “the wild child of music” and “better than the hype.”

For more about the state-run music eductaion program in Venezuela that inspired Dudamel and brought him to star status, see a new L.A. Times article.

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More Praise for ‘The Dude’ from Venezuela

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported on Gustavo Dudamel, the classical music conductor who — along with the state-funded music education “sistema” in Venezuela that he champions — is becoming muy famoso.

El Sistema takes children, often from circumstances of abject poverty, and teaches them to play instruments. According to most press reports, there are more than 250,000 children in El Sistema right now — its Web site cites 350,000 — playing in group classes and youth orchestras culminating in the Bolívar orchestra, which Dudamel will bring to Washington on April 6.

The Post credits Dudamel with “bringing a breath of fresh air to the familiar.” It also turns a critical eye to Dudamel’s family life, pressing him to explain why he refers to his musical endeavors as so many “wives.”

Does he extend this kind of morality to his real wife, the journalist and former dancer Eloísa Maturén? “No, no, no, no!” he said, laughing, and amended his description of the orchestras: “It’s polygamy, but in a beautiful way.”

So there you have it. ‘The Dude’ comes out on top again!

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Venezuelan Conductors Invade U.S. Classical Music Scene

Venezuela’s Gustavo Dudamel is on his way to becoming a household name. He is credited with reviving classical music, and will surely gain more attention when he assumes his post as conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009.

It so happens that another Venezuelan conductor, Eduardo Marturet (pictured above), heads up the Miami Symphony Orchestra. Though Marturet honed his music skills abroad in Europe, he later returned to Venezuela and preceded Dudamel as director of Venezuela’s Youth Symphony Orchestra through 1995. More recently, in 2006, his “Encantamento” won a Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album.

The Miami Symphony Orchestra began its 20th season last Saturday. The first performance featured a star performer, the violinist Alexis Cardenas, who is a also Venezuelan. Watch him wow the crowd in the video below.

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Venezuela’s Youth Music Program Spreads Smiles

By now, you’ve surely heard of Venezuela’s renowned music program “El Sistema,” which gives young children from poor families an opportunity to learn how to play classical music. The program is 30 years old, and currently reaches quarter of a million students. It is also having a big impact around the world.

Here is a roundup of articles you may have missed:

The Associated Press writes that Venezuela’s youth orchestra program has turned the country into “a powerhouse for producing talented musicians.” The prime example is conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who will head the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009. “‘El Sistema’ has given me everything. It gave me the possibility of having a path in life with music,” he said.

Reuters notes that rich countries like the U.S. and and UK are “lining up” to imitate the Venezuelan program. Hundreds of thousands of children in Venezuela have sidestepped a life of poverty and crime through the free education, so why not try it elsewhere? L.A. and Baltimore are developing similar youth orchestras.

Wired Magazine opines that, regardless of what people think about President Chavez, nothing can touch the shining example of his state-funded music education program. The heavy investments in poverty relief and human development indeed show that Venezuela has its priorities straight.

The New York Times reports that Venezuela is testing the peaceful techniques of “El Sistema” in prisons across the country. Here, “budding musicians include murderers, kidnappers, thieves and… dozens of “narcomulas,” or drug mules, as small-scale drug smugglers are called.” If the attempt to humanize jails works out, prison reform in Venezuela may also set the standard for other nations.

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More Music Accolade for Venezuela

A youth music education program in Venezuela that has earned praise around the world recently won Spain’s Prince of Asturias Prize.

Since it began in 1975, “El Sistema” has taught 600,000 young people from poor areas of Venezuela to play classical music. It is still picking up steam: 275,000 children are currently enrolled in a network of 120 orchestras nation-wide. The program has also produced international stars such as the conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who heads the top-notch Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. Their new album is called Fiesta.

“El Sistema” is profiled in UK newspaper The Telegraph. It turns out that founder José Antonio Abreu is seriously in demand right now: Scotland has caught the music bug, and will consult him on a similar initiative. Not to be outdone, the city of Baltimore, Maryland also plans to launch a music program for kids that takes its cue from the successful Venezuelan model. Read about it in the Baltimore Sun.

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International Dance Day has Venezuela Spinning

Today, April 29th, events are taking place in Venezuela to celebrate International Dance Day. This particular art form holds a special place in the hearts of Venezuelan people, who seldom turn down a chance to grab a partner and show off their steps.

Ballet performances are being featured at the massive Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas. It was built in the 1970s and since then has housed Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, the group recently brought to world attention by conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The theater gets its name from one of Venezuela’s most famous female musicians, Teresa Carreño, a gifted classical pianist and composer who began at an early age by tickling the ivories at the White House of Abraham Lincoln when she was only ten.

Here are some highlights from ballet performances at the Teresa Carreño Theater:

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Venezuelan Music Program ‘El Sistema’ on 60 Minutes

A youth music education program in Venezuela known as “El Sistema” (“the system”) was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes yesterday. The program has taught hundreds of thousands of youngsters — starting at 2 years of age! — in poor areas of Venezuela to play classical music.

Watch the 60 Minutes broadcast.

The government-funded “Sistema” was started in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu. It has produced stars such as the maverick 27 year-old conductor Gustavo Dudamel (known to 60 Minutes viewers as “Gustavo the Great”). Dudamel made his mark conducting the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, and has been chosen to head the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra beginning in 2009.

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Look out, L.A.: There’s a New “Dude” in Town

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Venezuelan classical music conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his wife, Eloisa Maturen, are quickly becoming tinseltown’s new “it” couple. Dudamel was just in town for two weeks, and so in demand that he had to turn down interviews including top spots on late night television programs.

Apparently, Dudamel’s fame has prompted fans to call the Venezuelan musical maverick “the dude” or “El Dude.” The name seems well-deserved: last week’s show by Dudamel marked the first time that the L.A. Philharmonic played one of its “Casual Fridays” sessions at Walt Disney Hall to a sold out crowd. Read more here.

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Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra Wows U.S. Crowds

Once again, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela is on tour in the U.S. and making a big impression on music fans and critics alike. Last night, the Venezuelan group performed in Los Angeles.

The star of the tour is clearly Gustavo Dudamel, the renowned young conductor who was tapped to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic starting next year and who was recently profiled on 60 Minutes.

Dudamel is known as a maverick of classical music, an innovative composer with a unique style and boundless energy. Though most of the reviews of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra performances focus on Dudamel, he has attributed his own success to “El Eistema,” a government-funded youth orchestra program established in Venezuela in 1975. Still today, it continues to bring music education to low-income children who would otherwise lack access to involvement in the arts. Founder Dr. José Antonio Abreu was awarded the Glenn Gould prize this year.

To read glowing reviews of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra’s recent performances in California in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and the Oakland Tribune. Next week, they head to Chicago and London.

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Venezuela’s “Gustavo the Great”

Venezuela’s maverick classical music conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes yesterday. Dudamel is a product of Venezuela’s renowned music education program for youth, called “El Sistema.” At the age of only 26, Dudamel was selected to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra starting in 2009.

Check out the 60 Minutes segment that details Dudamel’s meteoric rise to success.

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