It was in 2008 that I first heard about El Sistema, or Social Action for Music. Its offical name is Fundación del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de las Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela (FESNOJIV) — Venezuela's national network of youth and children’s orchestras. It was founded by musician and economist José Antonio Abreu in 1975, and has been fully financed by the government since 1977.
Watch this video:
El Sistema oversees Venezuela's 125 youth orchestras and the instrumental training programmes that make them possible. Abreu has navigated the program for the past 35 years through ten different administrations, flourishing under both the presidents of the 1980s and the leftist administration of Hugo Chávez. Combining political shrewdness with religious devotion, Abreu has dedicated himself to a utopian dream in which an orchestra represents the ideal society, and the sooner a child is nurtured in that environment, the better for all. (Wikipedia)
This is music as social development. The maestro’s mission was to systematize music education and to promote the collective practice of music through symphony orchestras and choruses in order to help children and young people in achieving their full potential and acquiring values that favor their growth and have a positive impact on their lives in society. Envisioning an organization committed to social development through an innovative and hope-instilling music education program, distinguished by its excellence and for having a positive impact on the communities where it is implemented. Many of the communities impacted were poor communities, as was shown in the movie Tocar y Luchar.
Music allows human beings to access their spirituality, empowering them, and making each one of us more human.
As P-Noy starts his second year in office, and for the sake of this country, it would be a good thing to model our development after the Venezuelan model. Someone should whisper that into his ear.
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