Forty-eight years ago, Maestro José Antonio Abreu's vision of social, musical and educational progress and well-being was not limited to Venezuela. From its very beginning, the founder of El Sistema de Orquestas y Coros set out to share with the whole world a programme to transform the lives of children, young people, families and communities through the collective teaching and practice of music. Today, almost half a century after that beginning, that goal is a reality that is being realised in the celebration of the II El Sistema World Congress, to be held between 18 and 23 September in Caracas.
The II World Congress El Sistema brings together representatives from 40 countries from 5 continents, 80 experiences inspired by the Venezuelan programme, as well as 88 international musicians who will share with their Venezuelan counterparts, all united in this event that seeks to strengthen alliances and create new tools so that music continues to be the axis of social transformation.
From 18 to 23 September, there will be presentations, workshops, academic exchanges, visits to nuclei and other activities, during which participants will be able to learn about the 12 programmes developed by El Sistema; the functioning and scope of the nuclei and modules; the artistic level of the professional orchestras and choirs, and the methodology used to provide musical training to more than one million Venezuelan students who are currently members of El Sistema in Venezuela.
Likewise, the event will also mark the debut of the World Orchestra and Choir El Sistema (OCMES), a tribute to Maestro Abreu in the fifth year since his disappearance, honouring his dream of moving towards El Sistema Mundial de Orquestas y Coros. Under the direction of maestro Andrés David Ascanio and maestro Lourdes Sánchez, the ensembles made up of musicians from more than 20 countries in the Americas, Europe and Africa, from 33 programmes inspired by El Sistema, will make their debut on Sunday, 24 September, with a concert open to the public at 11:00 a.m. in the Simón Bolívar Hall.
Academic, social, research, organisational and artistic topics will be addressed by 21 speakers of different nationalities. In the academic field we will have the masters: Enrique Márquez (Manhattan School Of Music Precollege & Msm Summer, USA); Xavier Bouvier (Geneva Haute École De Musique, Switzerland); Karen Cueva (Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute, USA); Thibault Vieux (Paris Opera and Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, France); Mark Churchill (New England Conservatory USA), and Andrés David Ascanio from El Sistema Venezuela.
The social theme will be addressed by maestros María Guerrero (Fundación Acción por la Música, Spain); José Ramón Espinoza (UNICEF, Venezuela); Xiomara Alemán (Executive Director of Consorcio SPES, Venezuela); Standford Thompson, (Equity Arc. 15, USA), and Luis Velásquez (El Sistema Venezuela).
Alix Sarroy, Portugal, from the Instituto de Etnomusicología la Artesanía de la Educación Musical; Francisco Javier Romero (University of Alicante, Spain); Eric Booth (Juilliard, Stanford University, NYU, Tanglewood and Lincoln Center Education, and The Kennedy Center, USA) and Franka Verhagen (The Dream Orchestra, Sweden), will be part of the research theme.
Juan Andrés Rojas (Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, Columbia); Marshall Marcus (Sistema Europe), Igor Lanz (Executive Director of El Sistema), Sarah Willis (Berlin Philharmonic, Germany), and Lourdes Sánchez from El Sistema Venezuela are the speakers for the artistic theme.
These participants will reflect on the experiences and academic projections of musical programmes inspired by El Sistema; the results; the good practices of social, cultural and human development impact; the exchange, documentation, methodological construction and dissemination of scientific knowledge about the practices and experiences of El Sistema and other musical institutions; and they will share and reflect on the experiences and projects of an artistic nature that they lead.
During the week of this meeting, at the Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música, the orchestras, the choral network and professional special education groups of El Sistema will close each day with a presentation for those attending the congress, and will show the versatility of the groups, as well as the artistic level of academic, Venezuelan and popular music.
The II World Congress establishes a line of development and integration between different nations for the application and expansion of the pedagogy of the National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela, whose governing body is the Simón Bolívar Musical Foundation, an entity attached to the Ministry of Popular Power for the Office of the Presidency and Monitoring of Government Management of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.