Extra-Sistema Models in Venezuela

Hello to all! So, I will write a few final blog posts from back in Chicago, where I arrived without problems on Saturday. My final few days in Caracas were quite surreal, saying goodbye to everyone and having a few nostalgic moments. More final reflections to come in the next post.

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 practices

Jose 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.

Visit to Merida

This is the nucleo in Merida, capital of Merida State


Wow, it's been over a month and so much has happened! Apologies for lack of entries, but hopefully I'll get caught up within the next 2 weeks, or, before I go back to the U.S. (I'll be back May 1st to Chicago). Since I last wrote, Sebastian visited and we went to Merida (I had been there in November briefly) for research for me and to Isla de Margarita for vacation. Then, I was whisked off to Ecuador for a Fulbright regional enhancement seminar for a week, where they pulled together all the researchers in the Andrean countries (in this case, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela). We presented on our research, talked a lot and had a ton of fun.

But back to March. My visit to Merida was a whirlwind orchestra tourism time, including a concert conducted by my good friend Carlos (who just got a job and left Caracas for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and visits to various nucleos in the region. There are 14 in Merida state, and many are doing very interesting things. I'll comment on two, I went to both in what was probably one of my best days in Venezuela.

Merida is one of the few places in Venezuela that currently has an orchestra program in a jail. This should be prefaced by a brief introduction to Venezuelan jails. Prisons in Venezuela are notorious for being almost entirely lawless, inmates are often able to smuggle in guns and drugs, and create their own gangs and form hierarchical networks of loyalties. A few weeks ago there was a gang fight that broke out in a jail and 14 people died. If they have weapons, why stay in jail? Most of them would have no where to go if they broke out, and in prison they get free meals. Criminals of all different sorts are thrown together.

The prison orchestra program (now almost 3 years old in Venezuela) is challenging these relationships and creating new opportunities and skills for the inmates. I went one morning to the program in Merida, which currently functions 9-11am and 2-4pm, where inmates receive group classes and have rehearsal. The program in Merida has a space inside the jail with some individual trailers for music lessons, everyone else practices in hallway spaces. Alejandro, the oboe professor there, had 2 students but just received 2 more new oboes the day I went, so was initiating others. He said that he had seen remarkable progress in the men in the program; over time they increased their ability to focus and concentrate, and were developing teamwork skills. The orchestra has 50 or so members overall, all men. Alejandro mentioned that he has had trouble retaining students because they make parole.

One of the students I taught (always under close supervision by guards and the other teachers) had had his shoes stolen the day before, so was barefoot. He was the most advanced student, having played for almost a year. He had been in prison 8 years, but was hoping to get out in a few months. What would he do after prison? He wanted to keep playing the oboe.

When I left the prison, I jumped on a bus for two hours the opposite direction into the Andes, the region called the Paramo (technically this is the altitude that is above the tree line but below the snow line). The ride was spectacularly beautiful, winding through small Andean towns with colonial architecture and signs boasting traditional artisan wares and trout fishing. I arrived to Mucuchies, at 3000M, to teach the two oboe students at the nucleo there. I met with the director, Roraima, a woman who had been instrumental in the development of the nucleo as well as involved in El Sistema for 25 years. She was convinced that her work is making a difference in the lives of children, of the 6000 residents of the municipality, there were 360 children in El Sistema programs. They use a variety of spaces, from the Casa de la Cultura to a local school, and sports arena. She said that one of the largest struggles they have had is to create a musical culture in this part of the Andes, and has worked to make parents understand the importance music can play in their childrens' personal development. I proceeded to spend a few hours teaching two young and very talented students-the altitude made it difficult for me to play, but they huffed right along. It was quite the day!

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.

Trip to Los Llanos

I thought I would post some pictures from my trip to Los Llanos, Venezuela's plains (there are more on Facebook, should anyone want to look there). I traveled with my friend Danielle who had just arrived in Caracas, and we met fellow Fulbright friends on the tour. We arrived a day early to Barinas, the jumping off point of our tour, and Chavez's homeland. I recently read that he very much has the characteristics of a llanero, a cowboy of Los Llanos. Los Llanos has amazingly diverse ecosystems, where grazing cows and horses share watering holes with capybaras (the world's largest rodents), turtles, caymans, piranas, and all sorts of different bird species. Danielle and I went on early morning runs, where we saw an elusive anteater (he was huge!), we went on safaris, pirana fishing, anaconda hunting, a riverboat ride, and horseback riding. It was quite the adventure.

There are some capybaras in the background!

In Barinas, "Chavez, te amo-Chavez, I love you"

A picture from the Carnaval parade in Guanare

This is the church of the Virgen of Coromoto, Venezuela's patron saint. It was huge, and sort of looks like a parking lot from outside. It's also in the middle of nowhere. Apparently on this spot the Virgen appeared to the indigenous people and told them to convert to catholicism.

Since then, it's been back to Caracas to teach and watch old videos. It's the 35th anniversary of El Sistema, so there have been a lot of excellent concerts-Dudamel was here, as was Claudio Abbado. In other news, I will most probably be back in Chicago with May, to work with the People's Music School in creating more El Sistema-like orchestras in Chicago (right now, there's the YOURS orchestra, with which I taught last summer). There are a lot of questions to answer before I go, but I think I will be very ready to return to the comfort and familiarity of everything there. Upcoming things here should include going to Barquisimeto, a hugely musical city, and then, Sebastian's visit.

January in Caracas and Trip to Falcón

Hello everyone! First and foremost, I apologize for being a delinquent blog writer. I of course have intended to write more frequently. Here's a quick summary of the last 2 months: Christmas in Germany was wonderful, with Sebastian and his family, and visit from my dad, Beth and Denny. It all went by too quickly, and I was again back in Caracas. I hit the ground running with a meeting with Eduardo Mendez, the executive director of El Sistema, who was very helpful in putting me in touch with a lot of people. My first week back also involved going to two concerts that Dudamel was here directing, which were quite fun. By the second concert word had gotten out that he was here, and me getting tickets involved a crazy raffle-like wait list distribution.

I have delved a bit more into the research part of my project, which I have conceptualized in two parts-understanding how things happen today and collecting pedagogical and methodological tools, and history. As far as the first is concerned, I have begun to collect documents and a lot of methods, especially for the oboe. For the second, the orchestra foundation has an audiovisual archive from the first orchestras' first concerts. This has been really interesting as a means of seeing the development of the orchestras here, and I go to the archive a few times a week to watch old videos. The fashions are great, too. I also have had some very interesting interviews.

The end of January I traveled to the state of Falcón. I meant to stay 4 days, but ended up staying a week, which was wonderful! I went with my friends Carlos and Randall, who were conducting and playing piano with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Falcón that week, Carlos is finishing his Masters in Conducting here in Caracas. They are both Colombian and were good travel partners.

I spent most of my afternoons at the central núcleo in Coro, a beautiful colonial style city that was the first capital of Venezuela. The núcleo there has 750 kids in 6 orchestras, choir and music initiation courses, so there was a lot to observe. They also work with the region´s special needs kids in a deaf-mute choir, that will translate the choir's songs into signs. I learned how to sign United States and Chicago in Spanish Sign Language. In Coro as in most everywhere (ok, everywhere outside Caracas) there is electricity rationing at least once a day for a few hours, which meant that sometimes rehearsals were postponed (not any natural light in the rehearsal spaces) or students took over the courtyards to practice or receive lessons.



I also observed many oboe lessons, spending days with Pedro, an oboist in the Sinfonica and the professor in Coro. I ended up staying in his apartment with his wife, a bassoonist, Ricardo, the choir director, and Eduardo the tubist of the Sinfonica. They were absolutely wonderful people! After my first day in the núcleo I went with Pedro to watch the Sinfónica rehearsal, where I was invited to play in the concert for Carlos' recital.

These were my sectionmates for the concert, I also accompanied them to the other places they teach.

Pedro has collected tons of oboe methods and teaching materials, that he was generous enough to share with me. One of the methods is a beginning oboe book in Spanish that I am now using with my students in San Antonio. Today I taught and they were excited to have homework. Imagine that!

I got to travel to 3 other nucleos outside of Coro: in La Vela, Punto Fijo and San Luis. These are the three oboe students I got to teach in La Vela, a small port city outside of Coro.

The first picture of the blog is from San Luis, a small town in the mountains about 2 hours from Coro by bus on windy road. I went with Pedro and a group of musicians from the Orquesta Juvenil in Coro, Sunday morning, 6am, to teach. (The musicians in Coro that I met lead an impressively busy lifestyle-in the mornings they teach in the penitentiary orchestras, in the afternoon at the nucleo and orchestra rehearsals in the evening. Weekends are spent teaching at the nucleos outside of Coro.) We went on a little bus (provided by the orchestras) up into the hills to San Luis, where a new nucleo is being opened in a school. There are 500 kids enrolled and 50 instruments, so they are letting most of the kids start by passing around the instruments. We had 10 kids and 1 oboe, and this was the first lesson for most of them. The kids were very excited both about the oboe and about me, as I was the first foreigner many of them had ever met. After 3 hours of teaching sol-la-si-do on the oboe, I left the classroom to be attacked by a gaggle of girls who interrogated me about me. They were adorable.

I returned from my trip to lots of activity and visitors in Caracas. I also just got back from spending Carnival in Los Llanos, the Venezuelan plains, which will be the subject for my next entry. Hopefully I will post in the next few days. Abrazos a todos!

Reflections on the first term

Term as in trimester? Third of my year?

I thought it would be good for me to sit and think a bit about how I would summarize my research and my experience in Venezuela thus far. It's funny to stop and think about which are the things that stand out the most what specifically I have learned. Also, as time goes on here, I grow more accustomed to being here, make better friends, meet more people, and grow more comfortable, so I would also say that things are more positive the longer I've been here (Sebastian would probably say that I've cried considerably less in the last month than the first month, for example).

So, research part first. There is so much I still don't know, it's quite overwhelming. It feels good, though, that I have a lot of questions to still find the answers to. Thus far, I have mostly focused on being an oboist within El Sistema-most of the people I have connected with are oboists, and I have observed many lessons and sectionals, and have branched out from there. I realized at the David Walter masterclasses a few weeks ago, that I showed up and knew all the oboists. I am really thankful to feel part of that community. We can all be crazy about reeds together. So the questions I have dealt with include: What is the process of choosing the oboe as an instrument? What kind of repertoire is studied? What are lessons like, and how is that different from the US/Chile? How does an oboe student within El Sistema progress on their instrument, and what kind of challenges and demands do they face (and why/how is that different from US style instrument teaching)?

I'll maybe answer about the most interesting questions here. (And save my treatise on reeds for whoever is actually really interested!) So, one of the biggest differences between the styles of music education-conservatory (like the US) and El Sistema is El Sistema's emphasis on group practice. By the time kids start the oboe here, they have usually had a few years of choir and recorder practice and basic music theory. As they begin to learn their instrument of choice (and aptitude), they do so within an ensemble-even before picking up their instruments, the kids get into a routine of sitting with their sectionmates in oboe/woodwind sectionals/full orchestra rehearsals and singing the rhythms and notes of the music. The beginning oboists spend time just playing the reed and learning to hold the instrument, together. They eventually do also have private lessons, but spend many more weekly hours with their peers, struggling through orchestral parts together. Also, orchestral practice starts almost immediately (this is one of the big differences between conservatory/El Sistema education)-the learning of the basics comes in the context of learning orchestral parts.

In the case of the oboe, beginning orchestral rep is super super difficult. Learning to play a scale on the oboe can take months, but the orchestra parts demand it right away. This is something I have dealt with a lot with the kids I teach. This creates a challenge for the kids to learn melodies and make group music, but can also be frustrating and discouraging. (Actually, one of the oboists here wrote his undergrad thesis on how what is taught in year 1 of playing in orchestra is extremely advanced and does not correspond to what is taught in 1 year of playing the oboe.) All of the older oboists I have met, when asked about their initial repertory challenge, look upon it with a nostalgia-this difficulty was one of many they deal with in orchestral playing, and now, in comparison, many things are easier. (The argument against this difficult repertoire is, I think, that it ignores some basic technique in favor of teaching notes, which can create poor habits-something I've also dealt with while teaching).

This is the Teatro Teresa Carreño (she was a famous pianist), where I have spent a lot of my time going to concerts.
Me and Carlos

How would I summarize Venezuela so far? Nice welcoming people? Tropical fruits? Living in Caracas is very challenging, and sometimes I despair in feeling incapable of confronting its quotidian difficulties. (No water, gunshots outside my apartment, etc). I know that there are things here that I will never get used to, and things that will always be difficult. As time goes on, though, I feel better supported by the people I know here, which is a great comfort-I have met a lot of wonderful and interesting people, and look forward to continuing to getting to know them next year. I am also making a concerted effort to find beautiful things and places within and around the city, and like some of those very much (the field where I take yoga, for example, or el Avila, the national park, where I hike on weekends).


This week I was vacationing a bit, as most activities were done for the year, and Thursday I went to Parque Nacional Morrocoy, in the state of Falcon. Morrocoy is a nature reserve of islands, islets and cays with lovely tropical beaches. We took a spectacular motor boat ride to one of the islands, where we spent the day snorkeling (which was a favorite childhood activity of mine. So much fun!), dissecting coconuts, and lying around on the beach.
The beach Me with a cocada in a coconut!

With friends! Left-breakfast of arepas post-party in cabin near San Antonio

Right-dinner post-concert with music friends

It's humbling to think about all the things I have left to do here-learn much more about the history of El Sistema and its methodology, while traveling to different places to observe orchestras and classes. I am very very excited to get to go to Germany so soon, to see Sebastian and my family. It will be my first German Christmas. I'll be back the first days of January to Caracas to organize myself for the months ahead. Many holiday greetings and warm wishes to all!

Travels to Táchira and Mérida

I finally went on a trip! It was really exciting to get out of Caracas, navigate the bus system, and see other things. I left Tuesday November 24th, and awoke the 25th in the morning on the coldest bus ever (I was warned that the buses here are over-air conditioned, but despite my pants, knee high socks, long sleeves, sweater and scarf I still froze! They keep them at less than 60 degrees, which here is quite cold) in the Andes, to see lots of cows outside the bus window. See exhibit a to left. I guess you have all seen cows, and Venezuelan cows are no different than other cows. Anyways...


I arrived to San Cristobal, in the state of Táchira, to be whisked away by taxi to the town of Michelena, where I was to meet up with other music professors and get to teach lessons. The taxista stopped and took me to his favorite road-side empanada place for breakfast-I was very hungry upon arrival.

Michelena is where Marcos Perez Jimenez is from, a Venezuelan president (dictator, depending on who you ask, from 1952-58), there are statues of him, and this cultural center was his former house:


This is Marco, a professor and colleague who teaches with me in San Antonio conducting the woodwinds. I arrived, and was immediately put to work fixing reeds and adjusting oboes. I got to give an oboe lesson to the oboist in the center-these kids had all been playing only a few months, and were doing excellently.

We then went to San Juan de Colon, another small Andean town, where an orchestral nucleo is run in a school. Here there were many more kids, and huge classes of them were practicing recorder; most students of El Sistema play recorder, sing in choir and learn basic music theory before starting an instrument.



The next day I went to a nucleo in a theological seminary in Palmira. The school was all boys, of course, and offered elementary through university studies. With music, the school seeks to offer a more integral education-as we know, kids who have access to music are more successful in other life areas too. Here they offered choir and traditional Venezuelan music-there were ensembles playing quatro and guitar, and different percussion instruments.


I then traveled to the city of Mérida, about a 4 hour bus ride through the Andes from San Cristobal. I spent a really fun weekend with Zach, another Fulbrighter here-he´s in Mérida, researching agricultural reform at the Universidad de los Andes, or the ULA. Mérida is a university town, and is perched among some beautiful hills. Here are a few pictures from a hike we took. Blogspot is being difficult, I'm sorry there aren't more pictures. There are a few more on facebook, and I may add more later...

The view from where we hiked, up outside of Merida


Here is a picture of the central market. There are artisanal wares, typical "fast foods"-arepas, empanadas, and tizana (a fruit coctail with all the local fruits you could think of, and an upstairs restaurant area, where we had breakfast. We also ate ice cream at Heladeria Coromoto, which has gotten into the Guiness Book of World Records for most ice cream flavors. I had avocado and plantain (2 different flavors), which was only mildly adventurous. We also went to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant (there is more than one in Merida, too!), went for drinks with some orchestral musician at a quirky little bar in the middle of a power outage, (electricity rationing is really common in Venezuela, and is starting to happen in Caracas too, see below) and walked around a lot. I realized that all the walking I do in Caracas is between my house and the metro, really. It's probably one of the safest cities in Venezuela, and it was really enjoyable to be able to walk around outside at night, even late. It's also one of the coldest cities (at around 1700meters), but was still sleeveless weather during the day, and a light sweater at night.

I was really glad I left Caracas and got to experience other things, but upon return, I realize that Caracas too is beginning to feel like home, despite all its difficulties and shortcomings. We've had a lot of water rationing lately (for a while I had water 3 times a day for an hour-better get up early to shower!) and electricity shortages, which is frustrating, but I have my collection of 5 liter jugs of water (both for bathing and drinking), and candles and matches in distinct strategic parts of my apartment.

I will spend my next week or so (I go to Germany for Christmas on the 21st!!) finishing up some music related things, hopefully scheduling some interviews, and maybe going to the beach. I hope everyone is doing well with their December activities!

A Week with the Filarmónica

So, remember that first orchestra I mentioned? The first rehearsal I attended? That was of the Orquesta Filarmónica Nacional de Venezuela, and I got to sub with them this week! The program was Mediodia en el Llano by Antonio Estevez, Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto, and Debussy's La Mer. Great program! So, I got to live a week as a pseudo-Venezuelan musician, attending daily rehearsals and running off to teach afterwards. We rehearsed and played in the Teatro Teresa Carreño, the main theater here where I spend a lot of my time (going to concerts, that is!). I played second oboe and had a great time, La Mer in particular is quite challenging (and recently played twice here-by 2 of the other professional orchestras). It felt nice to get to play in an orchestra, I spend so much of my time here attending orchestra concerts and speaking to people who play in orchestras-orchestral performance here is assumed for just about everyone. It was lovely to have a surrogate orchestra family! My sectionmates were great, here's a picture post-concert.

This weekend I also attended a concert of Krzysztof Penderecki conducting his music, I was told by friends here that he comes often. He premiered a choral work written for Jose Antonio Abreu. The concert featured Finnish cellist Arto Noras, in performances of Penderecki's Concerto for Viola and Divertimiento for solo cello. The latter work was most everyone's favorite (as per my informal consensus taken afterwards), and used different extended cello techniques in exciting and captivating ways. It was awesome.

I have been working these last few weeks with the oboists of the Orquesta Infantil de Caracas, the most advanced orchestra of the nucleo Montalban. They're about 15-18, and all have played oboe for some time, in orchestra they're playing movements of Tchaikovsky's 4th and the Nutcracker Suite right now. The oldest and principal oboist, Jhon, is really dedicated and talented. He spends all of the rehearsal breaks practicing orchestral excerpts and comes to me every 3 minutes wanting to play me something (a Telemann sonata, solo or scale), and some of the others imitate him, too. Another, Naudi, wants to study composition and wants every spare minute of mine to be spent listening to the pieces he's composed that he's recorded onto his iphone with a cracked screen. If only there were more spare minutes! It's been fun to work with them. Meanwhile, San Antonio has been closed for construction, I'm starting to miss the Powerpuff girls and their cohorts a lot! Hopefully they'll reopen soon, they don't yet know if they will be able to have their Christmas concert.

A few pictures from a recent hike in el Avila. The first is of Fabiola and Carlos, climbing up. The second-a refreshing Cocada once we made it back down!

I will be off to travel this week. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are doing something for it. I'll miss it. I was in Chile last year, and I think Thanksgiving also went by uncelebrated. Yay tofurkey!

Anecdotes from San Antonio de los Altos

Hello everyone! I guess it's been a while since I've written. I think I considered writing previously, but decided to wait until I had more good stories. My life in Caracas has settled into more or less of a routine, which is on one hand rather odd, but on the other, I really like routine. It's nice to know I have some things that will most often be scheduled any given week, and I still have sufficient free time to practice oboe and investigate.

These are some of the girls I teach!

I have been spending just about three days a week (Tues, Thurs and Sat) teaching at the orchestra nucleo in San Antonio de los Altos, which I mentioned in a previous post. It's been really great to establish a relationship with a nucleo, and to get to participate in El Sistema so regularly, and learn about pedagogy that way. I really enjoy that I have 8 (!) oboe students there (and will probably have a few more students other places), and will hopefully work with them throughout the year-I sometimes feel like they've improved already. Maybe it's just because most of them are by now playing the reeds I make them ;) No, just kidding. I conduct oboe sectionals and teach individual lessons with them. It's really refreshing to be somewhere where there are lots of children playing music, and in need of teachers-it's really great experience and quite fun. The three littlest girls are referred to at the Powerpuff Girls, they have a lot of energy (and include the 2 smallest in the above picture).

This is Ana Paola with Sara, the little 6 year old. I taught her a new song last week-Merrily We Roll Along.

Today when I was teaching lessons, one of the boys I teach (who is 10, tiny and skinny but plays just about better than everyone else-he always looks like he works really hard to make any noise) needed a new reed. I gave him one, and then told him that he could pay me whenever (teachers charge a small amount for reeds, to teach the kids to be responsible about them). He said that he would as soon as he could, right now he was about $1 short. "How do you get money?" I asked. "I have to do chores around the house." He was saving up for a new reed! Adorable!

Besides that, there are always exciting concerts to go to. The Italian oboist Guido Gatti was just here giving master classes, in which I got to play. We're right now in the middle of a Young Latin American Clarinetist music festival, so I've been going to some of those concerts too. I'll be substitute teaching in a really interesting nucleo this next few weeks, so hopefully I'll have more stories soon, after that I'm going to travel for a little bit. I'd love to hear from you all soon!

La Rinconada

Yesterday I was privileged to have an amazing tour through the nucleo of La Rinconada. La Rinconada is an area in the southwest of Caracas with sprawling and dangerous shantytowns. The nucleo here is one of El Sistema's oldest, and functions in a government run school space. I went there with a comission of El Sistema teachers, who are realizing a project of evaluation of El Sistema. They are currently developing a system of evaluation to be able to apply to all the nucleos, then they will visit nucleos all over the country, to assess how the music programs are developing and where they can direct funds to (supplies, infrastructure, teachers, etc).

The nucleo of La Rinconada was the first to be evaluated in a test run, the teachers are still revising the evaluation forms. As part of the assessment, we got to see all of the different groups of the nucleo perform a few songs for us. Then, with the woodwind teachers, we individually assessed a sample of the woodwinds of the orchestras. (of around the 1,000 kids we must have seen, there was only one oboe!)

We saw about 13 different groups perform, and it was stunning. We got to see groups from 2 years old with their parents, to 3 year olds banging on drums, to various different size and level orchestras. I'm so glad I took pictures! There was a lot to remember!

There are so many children at La Rinconada that the nucleo lacks some of the resources it would need. One of the orchestras did not have stands or music, so everything they learn is by memorization:

This is the performance of the oldest youth orchestra there, see caricatures of famous composers behind the conductor! They played Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March for us. (El sistema has a standardized repertoire for orchestras of each level-there are 4-to play from. However, we also heard some arrangements and original compositions of the teachers at La Rinconada-teachers can address individual needs that way.)


There was even a group of students learning traditional Venezuelan instruments and folk music-the teacher, who had taught all of the instruments, including flute, is blind.

The most moving performance by far was that of the "orquesta de papel," the paper orchestra, of students 6-8 years old. I of course at first had no idea what paper orchestra meant, but learned that there are so many students, that some do not yet have instruments, but start their learning on their parent-made cardboard instruments. With these instruments they can learn proper positions and posture, until they can get real instruments. Their performance involved singing and dancing. Here's a minute of it. (The lyrics-Today we come with lots of happiness to present to you a new beautiful paper orchestra. Let's start by naming all the different instruments you see in our paper orchestra-violas, cellos, violins...*thanks sebas for the correction here) When they finished, they gently put all the instruments into a big box. No need for protective cases.

Incredible. Besides that, I'm regularly teaching at San Antonio, and doing more of the same-going to concerts, playing ultimate, trying to schedule meetings. I miss you all very much, please write and find me on Skype or Facebook!

Kids and Oboes!

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I've been so terribly delinquent in writing. I would like to think that it's because I'm busier, but it may be because I'm wasting more time on the internet. A lot of interesting things have happened since I last wrote, and it's already mid-October! I just bought my plane ticket for Christmas in Germany, which is really exciting.

Anyways, back to the Caracan musical world. Since I last wrote, I have been to a ton of oboe lessons, and have met a ton of oboists (I've never been more glad that I play such a quirky instrument and have such nice colleagues!). Attending lessons (with 5 different professors, of all levels of students) has been really informative to learn about pedagogy here, to see what kind of exercises and repertoire are being taught. It was great for me, both as a teacher and musician, and sometimes felt very self-indulgent. ("That's a great scale study! I've never done that. I should go home and practice it.") The students I observed are studying with the best oboists here, so they themselves are the top of each age group, they get the chance to study privately and look at things outside of orchestral music-many kids who just learn in the nucleos also get private lessons, but spend most of their time devoted to orchestral repertoire.

I have spent a considerable time at the nucleo in a satellite city (dormitory city?) that is up in the hills outside Caracas, about 30 minutes by bus in San Antonio de los Altos. It's a beautiful and peaceful city, and the nucleo there shares a community building with sports and arts programs. This nucleo has only been around 3 years, and sprang from 80 to its current 400 students, speaking to its importance in the region. Many of the professors there told me that before the orchestra program there, there were many kids who would spend their afternoons loitering and doing drugs. Now many of them have an after school activity.

I arrived to San Antonio in time for a Seminario, which in Venezuelan orchestra speak, means intensive music workshop, that can last anywhere from a few days to a week-this one fell during a long weekend, and the kids were there from 9-6 every day, shuttled between sectionals and rehearsals. Lunch and snacks were provided. I got to teach some lessons and classes there (and will be continuing to go there, hopefully regularly!). I taught a 6 year old tiny girl with a special light Rigoutaut oboe that is small and has fewer keys (the normal oboe is too heavy and there's too much air pressure for someone with such small lungs!). I was having her just play one note at a time when she asked if she could play me a song. "Of course! I didn't know you could play a song!" She huffed her way through the melody of "Ode to Joy" and it was adorable. I was very proud of her. Today I conducted the woodwind and oboe sectionals. The kids spend a ton of time playing through and replaying and rehearsing orchestra parts, and the teachers have tons of patience and are very thorough, I tried to be so myself today.

Besides that, I've been continuing to go to concerts and rehearsals, playing ultimate frisbee, and am trying to plan some travels for later this month and next month. I hear it's cold in the midwest. I miss Autumn and its related activities, especially anything related to squash and apples, and maybe even Halloween. Some stores here have Halloween decorations, but most have skipped right to Christmas. I'd love to hear from all of you!

Musical discoveries

Titles are silly. I feel cool having some "followers" though!

A ton has happened in the last week, and most of it for the better. I'm feeling a lot more settled in the apartment I am in, and am getting used to living alone. This week I had a few couch surfers, one of which was a Polish girl, Ula, who is on a 6 month journey through Latin America. When she arrived here she had already spent a number of weeks in Cuba and Jamaica. She had lots of great stories, and was on her way to Colombia, planning on looping through South America until the end of the year.

There was finally a lot of musical action here this past week, and hopefully continuing, now that school has started and vacations are over.

On Monday I went to my first nucleo (each section of the city here, and in most of the country, has a "musical community center" of sorts where the kids arrive after school daily to orchestra and choir practice), the nucleo of Chapellin, in the neighborhood La Florida. The kids here rehearse in a community center that doubles as a preschool in the morning and a church on the weekend. There was a choir rehearsing in the cafeteria, and small kids playing in orchestra sectionals in the rooms on the second floor. Alexandra, the director, grew up in the neighborhood and founded the nucleo four years ago. Here is the nucleo from the outside:

On Thursday I went to a rehearsal of the Orquesta Filarmonica here (I mentioned them in a previous blog), where they were playing the Brahms Violin Concerto with a 14 year old soloist. She was tiny! And totally amazing. Their concert yesterday was quite good, too. I was introduced to many in the orchestra, including the two oboists, who are professors and teach in various places in the city. One of them wrote his undergraduate thesis on the different oboe reed making schools here, which I am very interested in reading. (Yes, of course, oboists everywhere meet and start talking about reeds within the first 5 minutes).

This weekend I went to a ton of concerts! Friday night Laurent Lefevre, the French Bassoonist, appeared as a soloist with the Simon Bolivar B orchestra, and gave a spectacular concert. He was here giving master classes as well. There are famous foreigners here regularly, it seems, to give classes and play as soloists with the local orchestras. I met some bassoonists who live and work in different Venezuelan cities, and have invited me to come visit-I am planning on traveling some in November, I think. Saturday morning I went hiking with some German friends-it is so exciting to find green spaces outside the chaos of the city!

Saturday night the Simon Bolivar A played with David Ascanio, a Venezuelan pianist, Mozart's 20th piano concert. Ascanio gave a presentation at the beginning of the concert, having the orchestra play a few different sections, and explaining the interaction between the piano and orchestra. Their conductor is a 26 year old rising star in El Sistema, who is already winning international competitions and the like.

Sunday morning I went to a guitar recital (the Simon Bolivar concert was sold out-I guess they often do, with the general musical support here and tickets at $1.75-about the price of an ice cream cone in the street), the Natural History Museum (which preached conservation, and had some nice exhibits on local wildlife), and the Filarmonica Concert. By the end of the weekend, I had met many oboists who play in various different orchestras here in Caracas; last night I went out with a group of them and got to hear all about the oboe gossip here-who gets along with whom, who plays where, who makes reeds how, etc. It was really interesting to learn about all their different experiences as musicians here-the 3 of them currently play in different orchestras and come from very different parts of the country.

This is from last weekend's ultimate tournament:

A few new sights

Hello everyone!

I can't believe I've made it to another weekend here. I had one other meeting with a musician (I was supposed to have more, but next week I can start showing up at rehearsals)-Adela, a pianist who is married to the principal oboist of the Simon Bolivar A orchestra. in the Simon Bolivar there is both an A and B orchestra, the A is the older members who remain in Caracas, and the B is the young orchestra that travels around the world. I brought up my orchestra funding question, and she explained to me that Venezuela's black gold makes it a very very rich country. Despite political change, and even the economic crisis of 1983, the orchestras were a cause worth investing in. The government finances the paying of musicians and the tours. She also said that playing in orchestra is the only time Venezuela feels like a rich country-economically and culturally.

These last few days I have also done some more sightseeing. On Thursday I went with a Venezuelan couchsurfer to the Parque Miraflores, a steep hill in the center of the city, near the governmental buildings, that looks like it may have been an old fort. On the upper plateau there is a church, and a plaza Bolivar, with a statue. Here is a view of the city from the top.

Yesterday I went to the Casa de La Cultura Roman Gallegos, with Ceres, a friend from Frisbee, a cultural center that hosts art exhibits, films and theater.

Today I went to the Parque del Este, a huge park here in the middle of the city. There is a little lake with paddleboats, a zoo, and various different gardens, as well as open green and spaces for picnicking and barbeque. I'm really thankful to find some beautiful green places in a city that sometimes is so hostile and ugly.

I made it home just to miss the (almost daily) afternoon rainstorm, which at least I can always see coming in the distance. Tomorrow, my ultimate frisbee women's team here is playing a tournament in Maracay, which is a city 100km (60 miles) outside Caracas. Hopefully I will get to see a little of the city as well, as it's supposed to be beautiful. I will look forward to that, as well as hoping for a musical week, as that's really what I came here for (I think by now I've had quite enough time to adjust...!)