Change seems to be the word on everybody’s lips right now. Nationally, the body politic wants something new and something that will fix all our woes—health care, education, crime, diplomacy—but for all we hear American politicians are out to invent the wheel. Why don’t we ever look to successful working systems in other countries? Case in point: La Sistema, Venezula’s avant-garde approach to music education for its youth. The New York Times recently did an amazing piece on the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela. Across Venezuela “la sistema,” as it is known has established 246 centers, known as nucleos, which admit children between 2 and 18, assign them instruments and organize them into groups with instructors. They practice two or three hours every day, and the children are performing recognizable music virtually from the outset. Presently the program has an enrollment of 250,000 students, most ofthem from humble backgrounds. The author, Arthur Lublow, talks about the impact of stepping into a practice room: “It houses youngsters who have been taken from the streets or from violent or crime-ridden homes into the protective custody of the state. Only 57 kids were residents of the shelter, but 300 more who lived in the neighborhood came there for daily music instruction. I watched several orchestral groups perform, including a string ensemble of 7- and 8-year-olds sawing away at Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the first violinists scratchily bowing and the second violinists fingering pizzicato notes. The harsh overhead fluorescent lights, the white and ocher paint peeling off the concrete walls and the bars on some windows (dating from the building’s origins) might have cast a gloomy air over the proceedings. Instead, the pleasure and pride that the children took in their collective effort was infectious.”
But someone’s listening. The L.A. philharmonic has recently announced plans to inaugurate a program, “Youth Orchestra L.A.,” that is directly modeled on the Venezuelan prototype. And check out the superstar pupil of the program, new L.A. Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel, 27, as he guest conducts the SF Symphony March 20–22.