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...!)

Coconuts, the Filarmónica and some musings

Hello everyone!

I spent last weekend with Mariana and her family, she insisted on accompanying me everywhere I went, and invited me to go out with her friends a few times. They were all very nice people. Also, she showed me how to open a coconut-driving a nail into it to get out the milk, then, for lack of a machete, open it with a hammer, and burn the outside skin so the meat comes off nicely. That was really amusing. Also, there are so many tropical fruits here that I buy a different one every time I go to the grocery store, although I may not know how to go about eating it-today I bought something that is in the family of the papaya. Mariana also taught me how to make arepas, a Venezuelan staple of corn pita, which is filled with cheese (or meat). She had a special arepa press/mold/maker, just like some places have waffle makers and other tortilla presses.

Beyond gastronomy, I had a very interesting and long lunch meeting yesterday with a boisterous and animated violinist who played in Abreu's first orchestra in 1975 (his family gave up everything they had in Valencia to move to Caracas for him to play-he was 12 at the time!) and now plays in the Orquesta Filarmónica here. Caracas has five, yes five, professional orchestras, all of which are financed differently, which determines the musicians' wages and therefore, competitiveness and musical level. I will hopefully hear many of them, rehearsals start next week. The Filarmónica is the government-funded orchestra. The musicians, as state employees, received government materials (propaganda) during rehearsals, and are required by law to attend all pro-government rallies and marches. This is a point of conflict, clearly, for the musicians who are either anti-Chavista or apolitical. I think it will be very interesting to keep learning about how political rhetoric and influence (or opposition) are part of classical music here.

One point that keeps returning in my discussions with people here, regardless of ideology, is government funding for music programs. These funds make El Sistema possible here (although I need to learn more about how this became so-but I know the first orchestras received government grants and also some foriegn support-instruments from Japan, etc!), and it was increasing government interest in Peña's work in Chile that allowed his orchestra work to develop. In contrast, the contemporary replication of El Sistema in the US (and maybe, elsewhere) has occurred in a local, decentralized context. This leads me to ask: (how) is government support (financial, verbal, ideological) necessary for the development of such an orchestra program? The US is so far from having a powerful, centralized government (and is a much, much larger country)-crazed Obama socialist accusations aside-that national support of such an orchestra program seems really unrealistic in our context. I may fall into the chicken-and-egg dilemma here, so maybe I should stop while I'm still ahead. I am sure I will keep learning more about this in the contexts of the presidencies of Carlos Andres Perez (1974-79) and Herrera Campins (1980-84). I have so much to learn here!!

The rest of this week I will look forward to some more meetings with different musicians, and perhaps some hiking and a frisbee tournament. I'd love to hear from all of you!