Friday, June 21, 2013

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."

Sunday, June 2, 2013

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?!