music particularly orchestral music is
often perceived as something
inaccessible to listen to let alone to
play something belonging only to a very
small privileged elite but what if I
told you that fun ensemble music making
could be the answer to all of our
society’s deepest problems first before
I go into my idea I would like to do an
exercise with you today and I will be
speaking about social inclusion through
music massive social inclusion through
music but I’m gonna need everyone’s
enthusiastic participation for this one
the lyrics will be there so we can cheat
I’ll go I’ll go through it the first
time with you and then the second time
we do it together here we go
this is a song by Hugh Lizzy DS and we
use it very often at schools all over my
body
all right we’re gonna try it again my
body my body makes music my body my body
makes music my hands go my feet go my
hips go touch my boy stop stop thank you
and I promise I won’t make you do
so I want to go over what just happened
a roomful of strangers who have never
spoken to each other before we just came
together and as a team worked towards
one objective everybody concentrated and
focused first on listening then on
singing and then on moving your bodies
in coordination with the music
some of you were better than others some
of you may be panicked a little but then
looked around listened and relied on one
another to keep it going and I think we
even had fun once we got the gist of it
on top of it all there were fireworks
going on in our brains scientists have
observed that when monitoring the
activities of people doing music
practically the whole brain lights up
simultaneously especially the auditory
cortex the visual cortex and the motor
cortex and just like any other workout
these are parts of the brain that will
strengthened and you will be using them
later on for different things of daily
life such as language math problem
solving now
imagine that we did this three four five
times a week we would create a community
and a sense of belonging and friends
while working on memorization and motor
coordination and self-control emotional
regulation we would be maximizing our
executive functions all while achieving
amazing musical progress at a very fast
rate and that can be an amazing thing
for a child who lives in adverse x
environments let me go back to the idea
itself created in Venezuela in 1975 by
Jose Antonio Abreu an economist an
accomplished musician and a visionary
his thought was that a child who is
materially poor will see sees to be so
one he’s touched by music one he enters
the dynamic of the practice of music of
making mistakes in an ensemble setting
of making mistakes trying again thriving
in achieving a goal together he will be
spiritually enriched he will have the
strength and the grit to fight and
surpass the material challenges of his
life I used to work for the organization
in Venezuela and as a continuing
advocate of El Sistema how the project
is best known around the world
it doesn’t cease to amaze me how the
idea has been applied all over the world
adapting it to different realities in
different cultures in Venezuela in Latin
America the challenge is poverty and
social inclusion
there are programs everywhere in Mexico
in Argentina in Brazil in hora Y and
most of the time they include also
traditional music teaching and
traditional instruments
in or why they have a wonderful tango
orchestra in Venezuela they have salsa
bands mmm and I know a program in
Southern California that has a mariachi
music ensemble now in a completely
different part of the planet in Japan
they have a system inspired project and
peer teaching is very encouraged so the
minute a child learns how to put the
fingers in a guitar or a cello he will
be sat next to a child who’s less
experienced so there’s a community
dynamic that’s very vibrant very often
during the week very intense in Japan
they call it the program of joy as
they’ve seen that it has helped buffer
the effects of this traumatic episode in
South Korea the program has many years
now and they deal with the symptoms of
social isolation such as children having
trouble working in teams and later
building on careers as adults social
isolation coming from single child homes
a lot of pressure from big heavy loads
of homework and video gaming this can
also bring depression and suicide
they’re calling it the speaking program
because they have noticed that children
once they start being part of an
ensemble they become more talkative at
dinnertime sharing their thoughts and
ideas and experiences about their day
with the families in Bosnia in the town
of cerebra Nitza the biggest genocide in
europe since world war war took place in
1995 serbian government forces killed
thousands of bosnian muslims in just a
couple of days today ethnic Serbs and
Bosnian Muslims live side-by-side in
silent tension two brave young man
started the program in 2013
and slowly but surely the children and
their parents running into each other at
pickup time during the rehearsals and
specially during the concerts where the
magic happens
have started talking to each other and
interacting in a way that had been
unimaginable
then there’s Sweden and many other
countries in Europe I think there’s a
Systema program basically in almost all
of the countries of Europe Austria Italy
France Spain UK these are countries that
have very strong traditional music
education programs many times very often
for free public but for some reason they
weren’t getting to an important part of
the young population and so in these
countries they have created sistema
inspired projects making sure they
include and they reach out to that
population a very low-income background
kids immigrants or refugees in Sweden
they now have programs all over the
country serving around 9,000 children
and two years ago they created the
dreams Orchestra an orchestra made of
recent refugees in Greenland it’s
everywhere in Greenland the program
lives inside an orphanage and the kids
from the city come and this community
was created connecting these two
children that otherwise wouldn’t have
probably connected in Austria the
program has identified that their
beneficiaries their families speak over
29 languages and practice 12 different
religions that’s a lot of diversity to
try to integrate and sometimes school is
not enough and the streets sometimes are
not the best place so the idea here is
to kidnap the kids three times so
they’re not in the streets but
in this created community doing
something that makes them belong to
something where everyone is in an evil
even plane no language barriers no
cultural barriers no religious barriers
in Spain the program works in public
schools I always remember a young man I
met in Madrid two years ago a violinist
the promising violinist very shy not
doing great in school
he’s the children of immigrant parents
from Latin America the kind of parents
that have two or three jobs a day we
never really saw the parents in the
beginning and every time there was a
concert he would shy away and he would
say clearly that he wasn’t coming and
everyone would be after him talking to
him convincing him reminding him of all
the practice time he’s put in and all
the way and how he’s needed in the group
and at the end he would always show up
fast forward two years later he just
auditioned to the local conservatory his
parents come to every concert dressed
impeccably and bringing neighbors and
friends so this new sense of pride of
belonging of an identity as a musician
as an important voice that makes part of
a whole has spilled over not only
transforming him but his family and his
immediate community now why are all
these countries turning to el sistema
and doing these projects well I think
you might have seen the answer in our
exercise in the beginning and seen how
fun and transformative music can be as
authors Trisha Tunstall and Eric booth
have written it is the first time that
an idea from the arts and from Latin
America no less is giving us answers to
historical problems now I want to
finish with a video very short video of
a concert that took place recently
maestro Bray the founder of El Sistema
passed away a month ago there was a
concert in his honor
just a few way at days later this
concert took place in Caracas and 11,000
young musicians were part of it now keep
in mind this is a society that is
radically split and polarized by
politics where people are living through
an unimaginable not nightmare of social
chaos just to get through their everyday
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
this is what massive social inclusion
through music looks like intense
ensemble music making is the unlikely
but very effective answer for the
challenges our children face today I
encourage you if you’re curious if you
want to get involved if you want to make
change check out your local system I
inspired program volunteer or build one
don’t get afraid or overwhelmed by the
costs the first rehearsal back in 1975
took place in a smoggy basement garage
all you need is the will and commitment for change and it will happen thank you
often perceived as something
inaccessible to listen to let alone to
play something belonging only to a very
small privileged elite but what if I
told you that fun ensemble music making
could be the answer to all of our
society’s deepest problems first before
I go into my idea I would like to do an
exercise with you today and I will be
speaking about social inclusion through
music massive social inclusion through
music but I’m gonna need everyone’s
enthusiastic participation for this one
the lyrics will be there so we can cheat
I’ll go I’ll go through it the first
time with you and then the second time
we do it together here we go
this is a song by Hugh Lizzy DS and we
use it very often at schools all over my
body
all right we’re gonna try it again my
body my body makes music my body my body
makes music my hands go my feet go my
hips go touch my boy stop stop thank you
and I promise I won’t make you do
so I want to go over what just happened
a roomful of strangers who have never
spoken to each other before we just came
together and as a team worked towards
one objective everybody concentrated and
focused first on listening then on
singing and then on moving your bodies
in coordination with the music
some of you were better than others some
of you may be panicked a little but then
looked around listened and relied on one
another to keep it going and I think we
even had fun once we got the gist of it
on top of it all there were fireworks
going on in our brains scientists have
observed that when monitoring the
activities of people doing music
practically the whole brain lights up
simultaneously especially the auditory
cortex the visual cortex and the motor
cortex and just like any other workout
these are parts of the brain that will
strengthened and you will be using them
later on for different things of daily
life such as language math problem
solving now
imagine that we did this three four five
times a week we would create a community
and a sense of belonging and friends
while working on memorization and motor
coordination and self-control emotional
regulation we would be maximizing our
executive functions all while achieving
amazing musical progress at a very fast
rate and that can be an amazing thing
for a child who lives in adverse x
environments let me go back to the idea
itself created in Venezuela in 1975 by
Jose Antonio Abreu an economist an
accomplished musician and a visionary
his thought was that a child who is
materially poor will see sees to be so
one he’s touched by music one he enters
the dynamic of the practice of music of
making mistakes in an ensemble setting
of making mistakes trying again thriving
in achieving a goal together he will be
spiritually enriched he will have the
strength and the grit to fight and
surpass the material challenges of his
life I used to work for the organization
in Venezuela and as a continuing
advocate of El Sistema how the project
is best known around the world
it doesn’t cease to amaze me how the
idea has been applied all over the world
adapting it to different realities in
different cultures in Venezuela in Latin
America the challenge is poverty and
social inclusion
there are programs everywhere in Mexico
in Argentina in Brazil in hora Y and
most of the time they include also
traditional music teaching and
traditional instruments
in or why they have a wonderful tango
orchestra in Venezuela they have salsa
bands mmm and I know a program in
Southern California that has a mariachi
music ensemble now in a completely
different part of the planet in Japan
they have a system inspired project and
peer teaching is very encouraged so the
minute a child learns how to put the
fingers in a guitar or a cello he will
be sat next to a child who’s less
experienced so there’s a community
dynamic that’s very vibrant very often
during the week very intense in Japan
they call it the program of joy as
they’ve seen that it has helped buffer
the effects of this traumatic episode in
South Korea the program has many years
now and they deal with the symptoms of
social isolation such as children having
trouble working in teams and later
building on careers as adults social
isolation coming from single child homes
a lot of pressure from big heavy loads
of homework and video gaming this can
also bring depression and suicide
they’re calling it the speaking program
because they have noticed that children
once they start being part of an
ensemble they become more talkative at
dinnertime sharing their thoughts and
ideas and experiences about their day
with the families in Bosnia in the town
of cerebra Nitza the biggest genocide in
europe since world war war took place in
1995 serbian government forces killed
thousands of bosnian muslims in just a
couple of days today ethnic Serbs and
Bosnian Muslims live side-by-side in
silent tension two brave young man
started the program in 2013
and slowly but surely the children and
their parents running into each other at
pickup time during the rehearsals and
specially during the concerts where the
magic happens
have started talking to each other and
interacting in a way that had been
unimaginable
then there’s Sweden and many other
countries in Europe I think there’s a
Systema program basically in almost all
of the countries of Europe Austria Italy
France Spain UK these are countries that
have very strong traditional music
education programs many times very often
for free public but for some reason they
weren’t getting to an important part of
the young population and so in these
countries they have created sistema
inspired projects making sure they
include and they reach out to that
population a very low-income background
kids immigrants or refugees in Sweden
they now have programs all over the
country serving around 9,000 children
and two years ago they created the
dreams Orchestra an orchestra made of
recent refugees in Greenland it’s
everywhere in Greenland the program
lives inside an orphanage and the kids
from the city come and this community
was created connecting these two
children that otherwise wouldn’t have
probably connected in Austria the
program has identified that their
beneficiaries their families speak over
29 languages and practice 12 different
religions that’s a lot of diversity to
try to integrate and sometimes school is
not enough and the streets sometimes are
not the best place so the idea here is
to kidnap the kids three times so
they’re not in the streets but
in this created community doing
something that makes them belong to
something where everyone is in an evil
even plane no language barriers no
cultural barriers no religious barriers
in Spain the program works in public
schools I always remember a young man I
met in Madrid two years ago a violinist
the promising violinist very shy not
doing great in school
he’s the children of immigrant parents
from Latin America the kind of parents
that have two or three jobs a day we
never really saw the parents in the
beginning and every time there was a
concert he would shy away and he would
say clearly that he wasn’t coming and
everyone would be after him talking to
him convincing him reminding him of all
the practice time he’s put in and all
the way and how he’s needed in the group
and at the end he would always show up
fast forward two years later he just
auditioned to the local conservatory his
parents come to every concert dressed
impeccably and bringing neighbors and
friends so this new sense of pride of
belonging of an identity as a musician
as an important voice that makes part of
a whole has spilled over not only
transforming him but his family and his
immediate community now why are all
these countries turning to el sistema
and doing these projects well I think
you might have seen the answer in our
exercise in the beginning and seen how
fun and transformative music can be as
authors Trisha Tunstall and Eric booth
have written it is the first time that
an idea from the arts and from Latin
America no less is giving us answers to
historical problems now I want to
finish with a video very short video of
a concert that took place recently
maestro Bray the founder of El Sistema
passed away a month ago there was a
concert in his honor
just a few way at days later this
concert took place in Caracas and 11,000
young musicians were part of it now keep
in mind this is a society that is
radically split and polarized by
politics where people are living through
an unimaginable not nightmare of social
chaos just to get through their everyday
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
this is what massive social inclusion
through music looks like intense
ensemble music making is the unlikely
but very effective answer for the
challenges our children face today I
encourage you if you’re curious if you
want to get involved if you want to make
change check out your local system I
inspired program volunteer or build one
don’t get afraid or overwhelmed by the
costs the first rehearsal back in 1975
took place in a smoggy basement garage
all you need is the will and commitment for change and it will happen thank you
Please follow and like us: