Culturally Competent Orchestras #imagining2023

Thanks to the League of American Orchestras, I was able to attend their national conference free of charge. Aside from new connections, some of the sessions were very thought provoking including one discussing how to broach cross cultures. While I know etymologically the word culture come from its Latin root "to grow", the definition the presenter gave was the set of certain behaviors and values as things that are right and wrong.
What I found fascinating were the seven dynamics of culture
Fairness
Getting things done
Time
Status
Emotion
Control
Community

If you look at this link, you will notice there is a more individualistic, low affect side and a more communitarian, high affect side. Believe it or not, the new generation is tending to lean towards that similar of the archetype of Latinos, African Americans, and other high affect, communitarian peoples. So now let's apply this to orchestras. Everything from the structure of the concert hall being hierarchical to an exact duration of a piece to being reprimanded if applauding between movements are all things on the left side of these columns, where the archetype of Westerners tends to fall. But imagine if you tend to be on the right side of the above categories. You're used to expressing yourself, playing music in circles, and not knowing how long something will last because it will depend on that specific time of playing it (ex:drum circles, gamelan, indigenous music, jam sessions). Even if an orchestra ticket is available to you and they do include a composer from your ethnicity. Are they respecting your culture or at the very least acknowledging it? No. And that is why there hasn't been diversification of orchestra audiences. Sure part of it is an access problem, but why don't diverse audiences attend free concerts? Because they don't feel it's relevant to them, and how could they when only one end of the spectrum is being represented? How can we make it relevant to them so that they feel a part of their culture is reflected and thus it is of value? It's not because Latinos don't like classical music; did you know the first conservatory in America was in Mexico?
Obviously this wont't change overnight and I'm not necessarily suggesting people do the tongue flutter accolades done in E Africa in a symphony hall. But step one is for everyone to at least be aware and have the conversation. I asked when to have this conversation especially when beginning a new program? Her response will stick with me. "Well you have the operations, policies, etc. why not just add diversity as another topic?"

At the end of the conference we were all imagining our dreams for the orchestra in 2023 in six words or less. Mine was "orchestras truly represent communities and accessible to all." And then my colleague and friend Stan took the stage and boldly said we have bigger fish to fry than that we're not meeting our millions of dollar orchestra budgets. What about the future of children? Right now there is a 250 billion spent on children devoid of opportunity who end up in juv, welfare, pregnant, etc. that number will increase to 450 by 2023. Why not have the orchestras help this and worry about decreasing problems like the achievement gap in the twin cities, youth violence, teen pregnancy rates, etc. well said Stan well said!
So now I ask you. What do you think the world will look like in 2023 and how do you think orchestras can take a role so that they are not stifling, elite, sea-of-white hair institutions but rather the place their Greek root name derives, "the dancing place."

La Ultima Semana en Boston: New Discoveries

This past week has been nothing short of a whirlwind. In addition to the typical moving rituals of packing and farewells, I have had the pleasure of interpreting at the first U.S. misión (VZ to other countries) and Greater Boston showcase where eight nucleos came together and seven Venezuelans worked with them for an entire week, culminating in the final showcase concert tonight.  It was so great to be able to see all my colleagues' work. Bravi to all! I hope I can take pieces to MN!
As an aside, I saw my first El Sistema drums corps sans marching and a brass gig group that played the Beatles. It's evolved away from solely classical music in the US! Conservatory Lab is like the Montalbán of the US and I am so happy to hear they are expanding to 8th grade serving over 300+ students and eventually reaching 444 kids!
Aside from a brain that's caught between languages and many new connections I learned some more insights about the "Sistema way."

1) "Fuerza primero, refinamiento luego" (strength first, refinement later)
Forte is Venezuela's first objective and does not equate to passion. So often I hear people saying El Sistema kids are so passionate. I have no doubt about this! BUT, what is distinguishing that passion? Is this to say there isn't passion in other forms of music education? I certainly had passionate teachers/choir directors! Personally, I think this difference is the emphasis on the strong sound. Dr. Abreu strives for this strong sound as a starting point. In fact, he has a bow technique that literally translates as "scratching at the frog [of the bow]."A strong sound builds self-esteem and confidence, two incredibly important human characteristics.  In their opinion, pp (very soft) hinders technique and builds fear in the body. They emphasize this strong sound so much that for a long while piano dynamics are ignored in the music and everything is played forte.
I think it is this element of fortissimo, a surprise to which we're not used to hearing played by youth, magnified by the colossal size of their orchestras (200+), that some may claim as "passion."To say other music ed programs aren't passionate is just plain wrong.

2) The emphasis on scales
Roberto Zambrano, a founding member of El Sistema said everything for him was marked as pre/post his visit to Europe when he was studying Czech music for his Master's. He told me several times about how important it is to have the foundation of scales and it wouldn't be uncommon for them to work on this for an hour.
There is a pedagogy triangle of theory, practice, and philosophy. As I'm sure you're not surprised, scales was the foundation of practice and theory. Without scales one can't do anything. Philosophy was anything that wasn't specifically musical, but informed the piece or created "good" human beings.

3) The idea of ser y no ser
It's not that the current work is bad, but there's constantly the question of "What can I do better?" With this in mind, this isn't just applied to the music, but rather to the entire human being of constantly self-evaluating oneself.

4) It's not about being the best musician, but rather the best teacher
The best thing is to have a group of varying levels of musicians. A year ago, I would have thought this was a teacher nightmare, but now I realize that this is the best way to empower the students and strive for collective efficacy, and possibly a teacher's dream.

5) Playing together as an ensemble
Every time the VZ came to work with the students the exercises they did made them listen to each other and count in sections. It's the sum of these individual strengths that make up an orchestra. To build the symphonic sound, the same articulation is essential. This helps in establishing the "soñido corporal." The physical body of the orchestra needs to sound together.

6) Autogogica, translated as self-teaching
One (of many) reasons music is a way to develop human beings is the fact that music can be self-taught and guided. One can challenge themselves to do to the next exercise, discipline oneself to hone in on a particular section, or decide they want to play with their family/friends. It's the choice of that individual.

7) Discipline is not discipline for discipline's sake, but rather as a conduit for achieving goals
 Jesús Sira defined discipline as rules for living together in order to achieve goals. A very different definition than any I had previously heard or thought of myself. I'd love to hear comments on this!

8) Last but NOT least, is the love of your work. VZ for those of you who don't know sometimes do this for 12 hrs straight. There is no such thing as a bathroom break, a snack break, or even a mere 30 second mental break. They work HARD. But it's because they love it. You can't do something to that degree that you don't love. When I asked them what they would have liked to have done more of this week, they all responded, "Work more."

Thank you to Mark Churchhill, CLCS, the Venezuelans, and everyone who generously hosted me this week. It was a wonderful, and very relevant/appropriate way to end my time in Boston. I hope I can visit soon!! They're having an international seminario in Acarigua June 14. Congrats to Maestro Abreu who received an honorary doctorate from Harvard alongside Oprah and Mayor Menino! And thus closes another life chapter.

A Farewell to Boston

Life is full of surprises. This adage never ceases to (ironically) surprise me. Graduation was a whirlwind, but while impromptu, it truly was a beautiful ceremony. Each fellow gave their own unique presentation. Personally, two first things occurred. One was the minority played music and in that music was myself. I don't say this to sound arrogant, but rather as a new moment of self-awareness. Performance has never been something I will willingly do. I usually acquiesce requests when people ask me to accompany or play something with them, but rarely is it my idea. While this still was at the request of my wonderful friend/fellow Monique, it made me realize how important performance is to me. It's just not that in the setting of a concert pianist, but rather as a way to bring people together. When I was playing, I got lost in the music, and expressed myself in a way that only music can. A goal for me this next year is to stay an active performer and know that doing that in an ensemble setting is just as acceptable as a soloist. The other new thing is I gave a speech without any preparation. The words were coming to me while other fellows were speaking, but when I got up there with my outline and all, I didn't glance down once. Looking out to the audience, I realized I, while my blood family was absent, was among family, the NEC/Sistema family, and it was really special to have such an intimate, meaningful graduation, instead of the typical names and pre-determined speeches. It's not too often one gets to plan their own graduation, and we did just that. After then flying to CA to hear my sister's graduation which was essentially a capital campaign speech (and an atrocious one at that), I continued to feel so fortunate for how special our ceremony was.

I'd also like to put a plug for our recently finished Sistema assessment paper: http://sistemafellows.typepad.com/my-blog/2013/05/an-exploration-in-el-sistema-inspired-assessment-practice.html
I'd love to hear your input!

And then, I went to MN for 3.5 days. Mainly so I didn't have to take a 7 hr flight straight back, but also to have some meetings I had initially scheduled over Christmas break that didn't happen then...And in those 9 meetings in 3 days, my future was deemed. I know part of it is honeymoon stage of not having been home in 6 months, but part of it, and the part that counts, is that it just felt so right! The work happened so naturally and I truly felt the potential and support that WILL happen. How can the Twin Cities NOT have a program?!

The Tipping Point

I'm aware it's been awhile. To be frank, aside from the busyness excuse, aside from further cultivation of development skills, there hasn't been a whole lot to blog about with next steps being uncertain. But after a complimentary registration of the League conference and some wonderful conversations with colleagues,  life is going to happen regardless of if I plan it or not so I'm riding with it and not overanalyzing the possibilities, but rather actively pursuing the options. Here's a book that I thought worthwhile.

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Perhaps some of you will recognize the title of this blog from Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller The Tipping Point. If you haven't read it, regardless of your field (but especially if you're in the Sistema world), I HIGHLY recommend it. Psychology is a subject I did not take in school and something that fascinates me and to which I have learned a great deal this year. The book talks about a lot of different instances, but let me choose two and apply them to the Sistema field and why I feel they are so relevant. All information is accredited to the aforementioned book. As always comments are welcome!

1. Contagiousness vs. Stickiness
The former term is a factor of who receives the message and how many different groups of people that person knows; notice I did not say how many people that person knows because if all those people are in the same circle, it will not spread. The latter term has to do with the product itself. How impressionable is it? There's a Law of Few meaning it doesn't take a large group of people to spread something. Find those passionate people and invest time in them!

The stickiness factor will have to do with the impression you leave on people at events, your website, and the difference your program makes (the reason why logic models, assessment/evaluation are so important. Stay tuned for a paper on this from our cohort!). Some people may not have a lot of friends, but they're incredibly persuasive and when these people tell others about an idea, they're sold.

The combination of these two types of people is what the Sistema field needs! I learned from the book there was a guy that did the same thing as Paul Revere, but he didn't know people outside his social circle so riding outside of Boston was pointless.

2. Nature vs. Nurture
The book also discusses the fact that children who are from troubled neighborhoods, but good families are worse off than troubled families and good neighborhoods. The studies discussed show that in fact, it's not parents who have a large influence on the kids (done through comparing adopted children with their adopted parents and finding no resemblance whatsoever). It's rather the peer environment that influences children significantly.

Expanding this thought, it's also not what you do in the environment ("the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behavior" (165), but rather creating that environment. This is to say that it is more important psychologically speaking to create a safe, nurturing, supportive environment than produce musical excellence, stimulation or concentration on X skill. In my mind, THIS is why nucleos are effective.

I just heard an anecdote from ACME pertaining to this. ACME students are the only ones saying thank you for their snacks out of all the afterschool program children (that's 13 out of 100+). Some could say this is just a correlation, but the fact that it is such a small number tells me otherwise or that it is in fact a strong correlation. In my mind, this is producing the nebulous "social change" everyone discusses, one baby step at a time. And it's because the environment to do so is created, not the fact that they're playing musical instruments.

I also just read ACME's first Evaluation report that showed ACME kids were more creative and showed more empathy than the control group. And this is in under a year with a mere thirteen first graders! I can only imagine the long-term outcomes a program like ACME can have in vast communities all across the world!!



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As I end this year, my next steps are still uncertain, but the immense amount of skills I have begun to develop and the connections that have been built give me the confidence to go out into this world and do the work. I've also decided that as I learned this year in group discussions, an objective must be set before every meeting to be as efficient as possible. I now actively use this same principle in life. Just think if we set out each day with a Purpose in mind (the P is upper case on purpose). Instead of going to a job with the purpose of "making a living," think if we went to that job for the purpose of making a difference, and in turn MADE A LIFE! What does it really mean to make a living? Perhaps I am among few who think this and I'm sure I can be called unrealistic, a dreamer, stuck in a bubble and not in the "real world," but after the recent Boston marathon events I am continually reminded that each day is a blessing and an opportunity. An opportunity to do what YOU want. For me, that is to make this world a better place in the best way I know how. In the words of Switchfoot, "This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"

Back to Reality: A La Orden

Is it really true? I step out of the cab as my feet touch the white snow falling from the sky and I unlock my front door. As I walk into my room and see my bed for the first time in almost a month, it feels almost as if I hadn't left, but introspectively, I see everything with a new light. I don't think I've ever been so happy to eat oatmeal and a veggie burger and today, now that food is back to my control, marks day 1 for my true vegan diet. We'll see what happens.

Our last full day in Caracas consisted of a significant meeting, the one and only Maestro José Antonio Abreu. As we were anxiously waiting for him to arrive, I searched the various certificates hung on the walls for the honorary doctorate I know he had received from NEC. I had no such luck, but instead found honorary doctorates from several institutions, Germany and Venezuela, recognition from the cities of LA and Boston, and many many other awards for being a phenomenal citizen, contribution to science, humanity, music, the arts, economy..the list is endless. All of these awards (especially knowing there were others like the NEC honorary doctorate that weren't even shown!) reinforced to me what an amazing man this was, not only nationally, but literally worldwide.

I am so glad we spent the whole morning prior to the meeting planning what we were going to say because he left the meeting completely up to us. It was so special to not only have time with him, but to have a personal interaction with him. He didn't make a speech, but instead everything he said was in dialogue with what we were telling him. It was also really exciting to not only hear the takeaways of my fellow colleagues, but of their future plans, a topic which we so readily will dismiss because of fear. Even though it is still unclear, I am so calm and confident knowing it will work out as it always does.
Dr. Abreu stressed the importance of having a choral program in every nucleo and I also found out he went to MN tenish years ago for a choral conference led by their director of choral programs (who didn't even start as a choralist!). Needless to say, high dream achieved!

Despite the media angle of a corrupt, socialist, and "evil" Venezuela, I was shown the COMPLETE opposite from every person I encountered, inside and outside of El Sistema from the minute I exited the airport to the minute I arrived in Texas. They never say "you're welcome" there, but rather "to the order" and were literally there to serve us whenever, however, and in whatever way they could. It made me think our response to thank you of "you're welcome' and how automatic and unthoughtful it is when we say it. As I step back into American life, I am going to take those three simple words with me. and the next time I say 'you're welcome" I am truly going to mean it. The friendships, stories, memories, joy, laughter, and  in every way imaginable beautiful country reinspired, rejuvenated, and demonstrated to me once again how much people can have, and how much more these types of things weigh than material goods.

                                                     Beautiful Venezuelan countryside

Venezuela 8: The Cake Batter of El Sistema

Yesterday we had lunch with Bolivia Bottome, the International Relations Director of El Sistema. Her main goal is to develop loose relations with international programs and give what she can, but does not want a leadership role in these. "Each program needs to be adapted to its own country, in its own culture and with its own particularities."

I'd like to make an analogy to cake after having a delectable smorgsbord of cakes at a delicious dinner at Dani Bedoni's beautiful home. Thank you, Dani! There are needed ingredients in every cake and there are varied ingredients, catered to each taste. The basic ingredients (according to Bolivia) of El Sistema are 1) Inclusivity 2) Free of charge 3) Weekly Intensity 4) Frequent performance and above all, 5) the musical excellence. "But within this, it's up to you what you want to do." She assumed every El Sistema program had these things, but I don't think the US has our basic batter recipe together yet, or they're trying so hard to replicate their grandma's cake that has an ingredient you can't find in the US that they're missing the fact they could still use the batter as a base but make just as delicious of a cake by altering ingredients that are easily and readily available.

As I witnessed with ACME, performance is a powerful tool and essential for "social change." We have two main ethnicities: African American and Latino and at the beginning of the year these two groups were incredibly segregated. Trying to partner them randomly would be unsuccessful. But after they had their first large performance two months into it, they all feel they were part of something together and thus have something to relate to with one another. The teachers numbered them off and there was no opposition. This increase in diversity respect was directly caused by that performance and the preparation of it, sharing the hard work and celebration of a successful performance.

I am fully aware of the fact I am a vocal person and I think the real reason what Bolivia said held so much weight is I can write as many blog posts and advocate as much as I want, but the real demonstration is in the results (the taste of the cake if you will). If we can actually taste the cake by showing what El Sistema "should be" through our program and the success of producing good citizens through this musical excellence, that is far more powerful than anything I or anyone can say about how to make a cake. Bolivia's opinion was you can't achieve good citizens through music without musical excellence. As much as I would have disagreed with this earlier in the year, I am starting to understand how imperative it truly is. She also posed an interesting question, "Are we trying to influence or educate?" By us telling people how to be good citizens we are educating them, but that's it. How can we turn this education into real influence? By demonstrating musical excellence and stressing that we can apply this excellence to other areas of life.This is a very interesting difference and one I had not thought of before.

Another huge topic right now is should we centralize the US movement in a country that is so decentralized, not just by state, but by district? And if we do so, shouldn't we respect Maestro's wishes of not having a taxonomy and lead by example? I will admit the idea frightens me because El Sistema has incredibly marketing power right now and without a taxonomy anyone can say they are "El Sistema." However, like most things time will tell and only true significant results will survive sustainably. If everyone here is telling us to take what works for us from here and not have an objective of replicating, how are we able to make a taxonomy anyway? Especially with such a decentralized movement. How do we connect El Sistema to all the other beautiful resources we have in the US, can access and should use and take advantage of: youth development programs (YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs), youth orchestras, public school music programs, community centers, social programs/support, school psychologists, family clinics, etc etc etc? The five things above are the "preserve the core." the fundamentals, or the cake batter. But think of how rich this cake could be with all the ingredients I just listed. And the beautiful thing about cake is there isn't just one favorite recipe or list of ingredients, you make different types of cake for different people based on their likes/environment (a wedding cake for a large wedding vs. a two year old's birthday party for example); programs should be no different but catered to community needs. And when the cake party comes where we can try a slice of each of the myriad homemade different cakes, think what a delectable and satisfying day that will be. Far more so then trying a slice of only one cake that is mass produced.

Venezuela 7: Casa de Culturas/Folk Music

Another story is that of Jesus Segovia, a student studying composition at the conservatory. Because his story was a lot of information about the importance of folk music, I have also added my personal experiences with folk music at the nucleos.

Jesus started his musical career learning cuatro and mandolin at La Casa de Cultura (House of Culture literally translated where folk instruments were taught until very recently when the beginning of folk music is occurring in some nucleos). These Culture Houses really fascinate me and despite not being part of El Sistema per se, two of the eight nucleos we visited took place there and this is the place I've seen art and dance classes in addition to folk instrument classes where students interchange instruments. Rather than the "drill and kill" pedagogy I've seen in the classical settings here, it's more a repetition of the whole song with the idea that students will become more proficient, the more times they play the song.

I participated in a guitar class at Quilbo where they were playing some Venezuelan folk songs and the teacher played a solo instrument, mandolin, cuatro, or bandola, while the rest of the class accompanied him on guitar and continued to repeat the song until the teacher after at least five playthroughs said, "last time." I can't help but notice how repetition is still at the forefront, but how the focus is on the aural development and self-correction through repetition rather than a teacher identifying the mistake and repeating the passage for the sole purpose of correcting it. When I come back (there will be one!) I'd love to watch more folk music classes and continue to develop this idea. Again comments always welcome, especially if you have expertise in this area.

Jesus wanted to learn clarinet, but when he participated in El Sistema, instruments weren't free, only the lessons were, and clarinets were too expensive so he studied violin. He fell in love with playing violin before long and believes that the most important need in El Sistema right now are composers that "can write like not like Beethoven or Mozart, but like Echeves (a Venezuelan composer)." I learned the first time folk instruments were introduced into El Sistema was when Dudamel debuted in 2007 so it's a very new development. He has no doubt this will continue to be expanded and integrated, but his firm belief in the importance of folk music along with classical music and playing Venezuelan music was a new perspective. He gave us some of his compositions that will hopefully debut in Boston this spring!

The trio at Quilbo including the 10 yr old trumpeter who hadn't played with them before.

Learning Venezuelan folk songs at Quilbo. (Photo courtesy Elaine Sandoval)