The following reflection by Eric Booth, Senior Advisor to the Sistema Fellows Program, appears in the Program's final report, to be published in November 2014.
Vision is both literal and metaphoric—both the capacity to perceive what is present and to see what is invisible or ready to appear. José Antonio Abreu is visionary in both meanings of the term.
For four decades, he has envisioned what is invisible but possible in Venezuela and other countries—ensemble music education centers in every city and town to transform the trajectory of young lives though the ambitious pursuit of musical excellence that is valued by their communities. His vision was initially seen as unrealistic—some thought he was crazy—but as more are drawn to sharing his vision, skepticism changes into commitment, and his vision manifests increasingly around the world. I recently asked him when he had the vision of Sistema spreading around the world. His answer, “I imagined this work growing around the world from the beginning, but it was impossible to proceed at the same time everywhere. So we had to wait patiently.” Waiting meant thirty years. And now the vision has blossomed in 57 countries, with the Sistema Fellows Program as the single most important leadership development program contributing to its growth.
Maestro Abreu’s literal vision has guided the growth of El Sistema, through complex challenges, to create the historically unprecedented nationwide orchestra and ensemble music program that continues to grow wider and deeper—some 500,000 young Venezuelans currently involved in El Sistema, approaching two million involved over its history. His perception enabled him to launch vibrant international growth, in Mexico and Colombia, and other Latin American countries. About 2007, a tipping point of influences released the international potential of El Sistema. Leaders around the world began to embrace Maestro Abreu’s vision, and determined to bring it to their counties.
Six years ago, Maestro Abreu took the occasion of being honored by the TED organization to envision an essential step in the growth of El Sistema-inspired programs in the U.S. He imagined a long and healthy future, citing the wealth of resources available (when he had started in Venezuela with so little). The specific vision he offered in his acceptance speech was: “Here is my TED Prize wish—I wish that you help to create and document a special training program for fifty gifted young musicians, passionate about their art and social justice and dedicated to bringing El Sistema to the United States and other countries.” His vision was to fast-track young leadership.
With the support of the TED network and others, NEC stepped forward as the lead organization to realize that vision. The Conservatory created the world’s first leadership development program to plant the seeds of El Sistema in many soils around the U.S. and beyond. When I visited with Maestro Abreu in July 2014, he spoke with deep fondness and hope about the contribution of the 50 Sistema Fellows to the realization of his wish.
To begin, President Tony Woodcock built support within the Board (and became an active faculty mentor in the Fellowship); Mark Churchill and others designed and launched the program. The program’s title was initially the Abreu Fellowship, in honor of its visionary beacon, later changed at Maestro Abreu’s request to the Sistema Fellowship. I was fortunate to join as the Senior Advisor from its beginning, through its five years, and into its new life as a resource center, to help shape the program, teach in it, and serve as a mentor to the Fellows.
The Fellowship had built-in challenges. Its single year, however intensive, did not provide nearly enough time to adequately address all the knowledge a complete leader must have—about El Sistema, about not-for-profit management, about entrepreneurism, about effective advocacy, about youth development, about social policy and poverty, not to mention about a range of effective music learning practices. Classroom learning needed to be balanced with hands-on learning; Fellows needed weeks of experience and investigation in Venezuela as well as in U.S. programs. How many times we shouted, “There just isn’t enough time.” But there was enough time to embed the most important priorities, to get a feel for the range of learning that would carry forward for years, to instill the El Sistema habits of mind, to build momentum that carries into the world, and to foster vision that aligns with Maestro Abreu’s. I refer to the Fellows as the “designated learners” for the El Sistema-inspired movement, and the Fellowship sought to prepare them to learn well and long in the complex school of the real world. And the Resource Center answers the need for ongoing leadership development. The Fellowship year started the work; the real world experience is the crucible for grounding it; the Resource Center is the opportunity to strengthen it.
Venezuela’s El Sistema is not a program but a process, not a replicable practice but an inquiry. The Sistema Fellowship has had the same paradoxical reality, and its graduation certificate does not affirm mastery of information but certifies inquirers, experimenters, and entrepreneurs. The Fellowship has been fast moving, flexible, responsive, resilient, and evolving, exactly as Venezuela’s El Sistema has been. Maestro Abreu uses the phrase “ser no ser” to describe the nature of El Sistema—it both “is and isn’t” a system—it exists and is evolving at the same time.” This has also been the nature of the Fellowship. One could argue that it is the nature of the ninety-plus El Sistema-inspired programs around the U.S.
The Sistema Fellows Program learned its way forward from a rocket-fast start, through the distinctive character and contributions of each cohort of ten. The Fellowship grew, its knowledge deepened, its impact widened as each cohort launched into the world and brought its own visions into reality.
There were some consistent features to each cohort’s experience. The breathless excitement of beginning. The daunting realization of how much is to be learned, and how the Fellowship months can’t teach it all. The excitement (and challenges) of becoming an interdependent cohort of learners (the way a good program must work too). The days and days of workshop time with extraordinary teachers. The homework, the reading. The projects that each group took on, and that subgroups took on in addition. The hungry learning of internships and study in U.S. programs—and sharing with the group about what is really going on out there. The adrenaline rush of attending conferences, of meeting with other colleague groups, of creating group presentations. The individual challenge of nurturing possibilities for work after graduation. And perhaps most impactful of all—the time on the ground in Venezuela.
The weeks each group spent in Venezuela taught more than months in any workshops possibly could. Each group met the improvisational nature of working with our beloved colleagues there. Often the visiting Fellows didn’t know from day to day where they would be or what they would be doing. But they found themselves thrust into the heart of the teaching and learning wherever they went. They were resources in every núcleo they entered—they wanted to be tapped, and indeed they were. (Dan Berkowitz ’10, tells the story of giving a private trombone lesson that went on for hours. Until he finally asked the student, “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else by now?” The student answered, “Oh yes, I was supposed to leave more than an hour ago, but you were willing to keep teaching, so how could I leave?”) They traveled around the country in groups large and small to see and feel the way El Sistema lives in its variety of settings. They taught; they studied; they interviewed; they tried things they had never done before; they handled unexpected travel challenges; they fell in love with Venezuelans and Venezuela wherever they went. They came back with a visceral sense of El Sistema, a feel for its flexibility, adaptability, durability and rigor, with a wealth of stories, and a sense that they belong as members of its international family, a sense that they can take the flame inside them and light fires wherever they go.
I mentioned “projects” the Fellows took on; these may not be so well known. The Fellows, as designated learners, undertook to document their discoveries and insights to give back to the larger movement—something that would advance the knowledge of the entire field. The first two cohorts thoroughly explored the fundamentals of El Sistema and sought out avenues for sharing their findings with emerging programs throughout the U.S. The next two cohorts became more intentional in producing tools that would be useful for the field. Cohort 3 undertook a national needs assessment, surveying all the programs in the U.S. to determine their most pronounced professional development requirements. Cohort 4 produced a foundational document for the entire U.S. movement on the complex issues of assessment, evaluation and research, and offered recommended tools any site might adopt. Cohort 5 undertook to distill what the field has learned about teaching social justice through a music learning curriculum; their culminating document “An Inquiry into Creating Social Change through Ensemble-Based Music Program” pulls together a year of experience to help the field know itself as an agent of social change.
Each cohort was challenged to make presentations at conferences, to develop advocacy speeches, and to teach in a wide variety of settings. Each cohort wrote charming and informative blogs to report their experiences in Venezuela and around the U.S. Each cohort was involved in seminarios (occasions when several programs are brought together for intensified learning together), and Cohort 4 actually planned and led the first Boston area seminario, bringing together the local programs for two days of collaboration. Cohort 5 extended that collegiality of the Boston area programs. And Cohort 50—the full assemblage of graduates—enters the broadest set of challenges, bringing true leadership into a field that needs it. That is the significance of this moment of transition, five become one: five groups of ten become one more-powerful group of 50. It is no exaggeration to say they are the greatest hope of this movement.
This essay presents a snapshot of the impact these Fellows have had on the U.S. field. They are, inarguably, the single biggest asset and influence on the U.S. El Sistema-inspired movement. NEC made it happen, and NEC is staying with the challenge. The impact of these 50 is growing. El Sistema in Venezuela has gained its momentum and influence through its inherent multiplier effect: an inspired teacher changes the lives of dozens of students; an effective program director changes the lives of all the students in a núcleo; a strong núcleo changes the lives of those in its community, family by family; and a strong leader changes the lives of countless people in a variety of ways, and draws them into the vision they pursue in alignment. The Sistema Fellows have already demonstrated their multiplier effect in the U.S., founding and leading programs, consulting with emergent programs, with their eyes always on the right prize—children and music.
Maestro Abreu says “trust the young,” and this Fellowship has done so, fearlessly and ambitiously. It has fostered the multiplying power of these visionary, effective leaders who are realizing Maestro Abreu’s dream and joining him in his vision of joy and success for young people through musical excellence, joy and success for their families and communities, and for a worldwide movement that plays and strives for beauty. With the inauguration of the Resource Center, we launch the next step in this ambitious support of young leadership. We help the fifty become even more powerful, more joyful, more cohesive—to succeed in ways we couldn’t even imagine.
Eric Booth, Arts Learning Consultant and Senior Advisor
Recent Comments