So, although I had been in Venezuela mostly to learn about El Sistema, I also have observed some other models of music education that I think are interesting to mention. These include the music schools Mozarteum and Jose Angel Lamas. Both include either current or former El Sistema professors, but are outside of El Sistema pedagogy and funding. They offer different perspectives and some critiques of El Sistema.
The Mozarteum is a school I visited back in September. Founded in 2001 by violinist Ruben Caceres, the school is located in a lovely 4-story brick building in the Las Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas. The students, around 200, study their instrument (they offer strings-but not double bass-, piano and horn) with private teachers and perform chamber music. The focus of the school is to prepare young musicians to take auditions and study in conservatories abroad. The school administrators told me they felt they were preparing more integral musicians by exposing the students to famous solo repertoire and chamber music, as well as understanding music history and theory. The critique is that El Sistema is so orchestra-based, children lose other aspects important to make them integral musicians. Also, the quantity of orchestra rehearsal makes it impossible for them to find time to practice outside. The Mozarteum also offers competitive language scholarships in English, French and German, further helping to prepare students to study abroad. Everything functions through private donations.
I recently visited the Music School Jose Angel Lamas, Venezuela's oldest conservatory. Some pictures of the building follow:
A choir rehearses and a saxophonist practicesJose Angel Lamas is located in an ancient house in the historic district of Caracas, not far from the presidential palace and the Plaza Simon Bolivar. Once a nice neighborhood (as true of so many in Caracas), this area has not been well maintained and is notorious after dark.
The Jose Angel Lamas Music School is named after one of Venezuela's first composers (he lived 1775-1814) and was founded in 1881, making it Venezuela's oldest artistic institution, inaugurated the same year as the Teatro Municipal, or the municipal theater, of Caracas. The school offers free classes in most instruments, voice, folk singing and folkloric instruments such as bandolin and cuatro. There are theory classes, choirs, and a symphonic band. Students can study there for 10 years to receive the equivalent of a musical high school diploma in Venezuela, however, this degree is recognized abroad as a Bachelor's degree.
The school is dependent on the Ministry of Education and is the center where musical curriculums are created for the rest of the country. I was told by the feisty and fascinating director, Rosa (who is one of the most famous symphonic band directors in the country) that the school, which is physically falling apart (see photos from above), holds no interest for a government that prefers El Sistema as a social program. The school, she told me, is always struggling for funds, and it also provides free musical education to the students. The Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela, Venezuela's first professional orchestra, was created at the school in 1930, as well as the Orfeon, the first choir, making its historical value evident.
These two musical institutions provide more traditional conservatory-like education to music students, but also offers them musical communities through ensemble practice. Many of the professors at both schools either currently or formerly teach in El Sistema, so they are not mutually exclusive, some students in El Sistema come to these schools for private lessons or play in their ensembles. Their different focus causes them to be at odds with El Sistema in terms of philosophy and funding. The decrepit physical condition of Jose Angel Lamas struck me as really tragic due to its historical importance and current role as curriculum innovator in basic music education in Venezuela.
