My day in Carora

So, my day in Carora was so special, unique and important to my research I will dedicate a whole blog entry to it. I arrived in Carora-about 1.5 hours from Barquisimeto, on this twisty highway with lots of roadside goats (both alive, and for sale as meat) and little cachapa stands (these are sweet corn pancakes, folded in half and filled with cheese, meat, etc)-to meet Yuyita, the mother of my good oboist friend Fernando. Her husband is the director of the theater in Carora, and she had also worked there for many years, and the whole family is intimately involved in the music world. After a quick coffee, where we discussed the 10,000 things we should do during the day, she whisked me off to the Fundacion Alirio Diaz, the foundation created after the famous guitar player. One of the greatest guitar players of the 20th century was indeed at home (the Fundacion is a museum space as well as his personal quarters), and I got to meet him (picture above).

Historical note: (where do I start this?). So, why is Carora important? Carora is a small town that is known in Venezuela for producing great artists and intellectuals. It is the town where Juan Martinez founded the Casa de la Cultura in 1965, the first of its kind in Venezuela, which functioned as just that-a space where people could take dance, learn a musical instrument, or play chess. Carorans told me that they remembered fondly going there after school, because that was where everyone went, just to hang out, even if they didn't have class. It currently doubles as the city's nucleo for El Sistema. Martinez, beyond being a musical organizer, was also involved in local leftist politics, where he heard about (here goes!) Jorge Peña's youth orchestra project in La Serena, Chile, and what had happened with the coup (Peña was killed, and his colleagues were looking to flee). Martinez invited three of them to Carora-Sergio Miranda, Pedro Vargas and Hernan Jerez. I had heard about this in Chile, and some of this story had begun to unravel in Caracas, as Juan Martinez's son, Jaime, is a prominent oboist here.

So when I arrive to Carora, I am greeted with an exclamation that Venezuela's first youth orchestra was founded in Carora (as opposed to in Caracas) and presented with a huge folder full of newspaper clippings from the 1970s and 80s, so as to prove it. Astonishing, no?

I think there are a few things that have happened here. In the interviews I conducted there (the widows of Jerez and Martinez, as well as children and grandchildren, are still in Carora, and active in the music world. Jerez's widow works at the nucleo, and his son teaches there) and the clippings, I have no doubt that the Chileans in Carora were fundamental in the development of an orchestra program there, implementing their previous model in Chile. However, date-wise, Abreu's first orchestra began at roughly the same time (a few months earlier). I think the two projects bounced ideas off each other, and the clippings recognize the importance of both projects. I felt that Carorans are offended from not having been included in Tocar y Luchar, the emblematic El Sistema documentary, and the influence of these Chileans not recognized.

A poster from an anniversary of the orchestras in Carora

Beyond their work with the orchestra, Jerez is also considered one of the founders of Venezuela's oboe school, he was one of two first teachers to form students that are today's great oboists. Many people shared me this anecdote about him: Jerez arrived to Carora (alone, his family came some months later) dressed as was the style in Santiago in a full suit and tie, into 40C plus weather, and arrived from the bus terminal to walk the entire length of the city at 1 o'clock pm heat. Jerez also traveled regularly to teach in Barquisimeto, the oboists of the Sinfonica there studied with him for over 20 years. Werners, the current principal oboist of the orchestra, has recently resuscitated one of Jerez's former projects-growing and harvesting cane to make reeds. Jerez also started a lutier workshop to build and fix musical instruments-they told me, not unlike the project in Chile, that the orchestra's first instruments were made out of scrap wood, furniture, and whatever they could get their hands on.

Because of Carora's early role in the development of El Sistema (although it should be noted that there were other projects in the interior-everything outside of Caracas is the interior here-founded in the 1975-6 time period), and Martinez's greater cultural work, the nucleo in Carora that has grown out of the original project is considered a foundation, meaning that it is partially sponsored by private funds and has more autonomy from El Sistema than some of the other nucleos. For example, in music theory class it is required that all children learn quatro (four-stringed small guitar) as a base instrument (where others may learn, say, piano).

Tribute to Chile and Peña: on the wall in the Casa de la Cultura, a poster of the documentary on Peña made in Chile a few years back.

Really interesting stuff. I also got observe an orchestra rehearsal, and attend a small baroque chamber music concert, where Jerez's grandson played oboe. I returned to Barquisimeto at night, and spent all day Saturday with Julian's experimental oboe studio. He has developed a very unique philosophy on education, and has produced some of the country's best and youngest oboists. I might save my notes on that for those interested, though!

Trip To Barquisimeto

Hello everyone! I can't believe it's already mid-March, these last two months have overall been much better (and gone by much faster) than the first 4. I took another interesting trip, this time to Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara State (those of you following Venezuelan politics may know that Lara is getting a lot of news lately because the governor Henri Falcon just left the PSUV and it's been a scandal), and the neighboring city of Carora. Carora gets its own entry because the day was just that exciting.

Anyways, I traveled to Barquisimeto with Pietro, an Italian cellist who is also studying El Sistema. When I got there, we were immediately whisked to a vegan restaurant (yes, I did mean that) for lunch, which included fresh unsweetened fruit juices, an entree of a vegan version of Venezuelan pan de jamon, this traditional ham filled bread (but here made with soy), and cane-sweetened pies. I spent 3 days in the nucleo in Barquisimeto, seeing rehearsals and spending time with oboists.

This is the "compote" orchestra, where the smallest kids start their violin playing. They were about 3-5 years old, and played us a few songs. Beyond being adorable, the instructors told us that throughout the years they have been able to lower the age of when the kids start, and that as the program has gone on they learn more quickly-skills that used to take 1.5 years to teach now take only a year. One of the things I've seen a lot in nucleos is the necessity for improvisation-inventing and developing new curricula depending on the needs of the students.

One of the things Barquisimeto is most known for (besides being the birthplace of Dudamel) is its special needs music education program, the first in the country (since 1995). They have done an amazing job at developing curriculum for kids with all different kinds of needs, including transcribing music in braille to play in orchestra, and creating the famous "coro de manos blancos", or white hand choir. I wrote about them from my trip to Falcon. In Barquisimeto I was able to see a presentation of all the different special needs musical groups, which was being done for other professors from the state to work on creating programs there. It was really compelling and touching, and made me think of this: one of El Sistema's taglines is "hacemos inclusión a través de la música", we include through music, which previously I always associated with social class. However, these special needs kids made me reevaluate that, as the opportunity they have to study music allows them to be included in countless ways, and is such an amazing opportunity for their personal development.

The presentation included various recorder choir, percussion groups, bell choirs, piano performances and the Coro de Manos Blancos. Below is a video of a very special quintet, of blind young men who arrange Venezuelan melodies for 5 voices and various instruments (they played mandolin, quatro, and tambor while singing), and also compose their own music. Their musical abilities were quite astonishing, and here is a video of that.

I also went to a rehearsal and concert of the professional orchestra of Lara, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Lara. The oboists of the orchestra were the original founders, and this orchestra grew from the first youth orchestra of Barquisimeto, founded by a cellist who worked with Abreu. Ever since, Barquisimeto has been known throughout Venezuela as being a musical center. Also interestingly, these oboists studied with Hernan Jerez, the Chilean who worked with Peña in La Serena and fled to Venezuela with the coup. This story in my next entry.