Comments on: El Sistema: Changing Lives Through Music
Bob Simon On Venezuela's Groundbreaking Musical Education Program
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- I would also like to know where to send a donation! Please give us an address! I have a clarinet and a flute I would love to send them!
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- I would like to know how/where to donate money and /or instruments.
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- Anyone involved in music and the arts knows their power. Unfortunately, most Americans miss that experience. Arts programs are the first things to be cut when school budgets get tight. If you want to convince your school administrators why music is worth funding, check out this web site...Reasons to Study Music:
http://www.winstonmusic.net/instructionreasons.htm - Reply to this comment
- Neurological research is now showing that the potential for processing sound as music (and music as a sophisticated language of human experience) is held in every brain, but it must be developed early for best results. Also there is longstanding evidence that very early music training improves the entire vestibular system making general learning easier and more productive. There is also long-standing evidence that a child%u2019s basic notions about the world and how to live in it are set by the age of six. So Dr. Abreu%u2019s notion of social change through classical music is not simply sentiment and wishful thinking; it is reality. Elster said that popular music for these children is associated with bad things %u2013 drunkenness, violence %u2013 but that classical music and creative learning create a new and better world for them. If this is true, then the immense %u201Cheadlock%u201D that pop music and pop culture have on both the young and the old in the US presents the most daunting challenge for us here. Would children be able to give up all the junk of pop culture for a relatively regimented twelve hour a day immersion in what many think of as the culture of the elite oppressor? Would parents be willing to give up control of their children%u2019s notions of the world? We can only hope.
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- What a great story! And, yes, my wife and I are ready, with everyone else who posted comments, to give money, instruments and even time to support this program. I have a feeling that many who commented have spent many, many, many hours, days, and years trying to change and improve the lives of young people in the USA through classical music. I dare say there are many more children learning to play instruments in this country that there are in Venezuela, and there are quite a few programs for inner-city children here (the most famous being Roberta Guaspari''s program in Harlem). So what is the difference in Venezuela? Perhaps the extreme poverty and lack of hope in which the Venezuelan poor are living create a backdrop that intensifies the good that serious music-making can do for the human spirit. Perhaps it is the dramatic triumph over great odds through the initial vision and the persistence of one person. I was struck by the comment by Dr. Abreu who founded the program, that music was indeed a vehicle for social change. Raphael Elster, one of the branch directors, said that the children spend almost 12 hours a day, six days a week, in %u201Cthe system.%u201D This means that the children spend most of their early lives listening to, and learning how to participate in, sophisticated musical experiences. Would Americans accept such a system?
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- I have a perfectly good trombone, in a case, which I would willingly donate to one of these organizations along with a briefcase of music??
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- Partly inspired by El Sistema, we started teaching free music lessons to inner city children in February. At two of our locations, we teach free music lessons on many instruments to anyone who walks in the door. It''s magic. You can watch the barriers between race, zip code, economic status fall before your eyes as people communicate their hearts through music. This is real. It''s happening in Birmingham now. It''s going to change the world. Our website: scrollworks.org Our blog: http://metroyo.blogspot.com/
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate either money or instruments?
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- How/where can I donate money or instruments?
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- This was a beautiful story! I am extremely touched by the amazing music program offered to children in Venezuela! The number of people who have been affected by this fantastic program is phenomenal! Bravo to the founder and to all of the teachers & students who work so hard to create and sustain such a fantastic program. As a violin teacher I fully appreciate the dedication of these people, and of the students in the program. Thank you CBS for sharing this with the world!
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- need address to send help.
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- The People%u2019s Music School, located in the Uptown Neighborhood of Chicago, is the only totally free community music school in the United States, is a unique and special place. The School embodies the vision of its founder, Dr. Rita Simo who learned to play the piano in her native Dominican Republic, where music lessons are free. When she came to the United States to study at the Juilliard School of Music, Rita was distraught to find that many American children were often denied the opportunity for private music lessons, simply because their parents could not afford to pay for them.
With hard work, $625, and a donated piano, the People%u2019s Music School was born in a one-room, converted beauty salon, in February of 1976. Rita chose Chicago%u2019s Uptown neighborhood for her school because of its ethnic diversity and concentration of lower income families.
Today, the School%u2019s thirty-three teachers offer instruction in many different instruments (plus theory and voice) to nearly 500 different students each year. The vast majority of these students are children of ethnic minorities.
http://www.peoplesmusicschool.org - Reply to this comment
- The People%u2019s Music School, located in the Uptown Neighborhood of Chicago, is the only totally free community music school in the United States.
The School opened in February of 1976 and after operating for twenty years in rented, makeshift quarters, the School constructed its own, specially designed facility in 1995. Today, the School%u2019s thirty-three teachers offer instruction in many different instruments (plus theory and voice) to nearly 500 different students each year.
The Uptown Neighborhood is Chicago''s most ethnically diverse neighborhood and is also one of the economically disadvantaged. In spite of it''s economic disadvantages, the Uptown Neighborhood does not suffer from the same crime rate as other disadvantaged neighborhoods and the City of Chicago, attributes much of that to The People''s Music School.
http://www.peoplesmusicschool.org - Reply to this comment
- I just watched the repeat and update of this story tonight.I was not only moved and uplifted by this story but encouraged as well.My daughter, Jeanne, was our "free spirit" and loved to reach her pre-school students through her art and music.She was a talented artist as well as a self-taught pianist and guitarist.Many of the children with whom she worked suffered with learning challenges, and many were diagnosed with autism.Through her love for the Arts, she was able to connect with these children on levels that I had never seen before.In October of 2006, Jeanne dove into the Pacific ocean to try to save the life of a four-year-old child who had been swept into the surf by a "rogue" wave.She lost her life in the process.Her 21 years with us was not nearly long enough, and now we have chosen to honor her life by starting the Miss Jeanne''s House Bookshoppe and Foundation in Elk Grove, CA.Our mission is to introduce and instruct all 33,000+ elementary-aged school children in our school district to all aspects of the Arts through volunteers/mentors in the classrooms and after-school programs.One-third of our schools are designated Title 1, so funding for anything "extra" is out of the question. Like "el sistema", we too rely on monetary and in-kind donations to operate.Maybe if enough of us band together across this great nation, our grassroots efforts will pay off for our children.When I saw this story, it gave me great hope that our mission can indeed be accomplished.Bravo El Sistema!
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