05 May 2009

The incredible El Sistema music program is coming to the US

Three months ago, the visionary Venezuelan musician Dr. José Antonio Abreu made his TED Prize wish -- to create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.

Today we are proud to introduce the Abreu Fellows Program at New England Conservatory of Music. It is a one-year postgraduate certificate program for accomplished young musicians who desire to become ambassadors of El Sistema and who are committed to developing it outside of Venezuela. Abreu Fellows will spend a year studying between Boston and Caracas, and leave with the tools to return to their communities to teach the El Sistema model.

Subject to funds raised, the program is ready to open this fall with spots for the first 18 fellows.

More detailed information on the program, the fellows and funding scholarships is online at a beautiful new website, elSistemaUSA.org.

el Sistema USA is a support and advocacy network for people and organizations inspired by Venezula’s monumental music education program. It will grow to provide comprehensive information on the El Sistema philosophy and methodology, and host a variety of resources that will aid those building, expanding and supporting El Sistema programs in the US and beyond.

Check out the site and be inspired. Help build the program by identifying or supporting a fellow. And if you haven’t already, watch the unforgettable youth orchestra performance from TED.

A huge thanks to Albertson Design, who did an amazing job branding the fellows program and designing and building the website.

And thanks to The Rackspace Cloud for hosting the site.

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

01 April 2009

LA Times: Linda Ronstadt hails El Sistema in front of House subcommitee

From the LA Times' "Culture Monster" blog, this item by Mark Swed: "Linda Ronstadt hails Gustavo Dudamel in testimony on Capitol Hill":

In a remarkable testimony by Linda Ronstadt to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies Tuesday, the pop singer made an impassioned plea for government support of the arts. And Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's soon-to-be music director, was her poster boy.

We quote from her written testimony here:

In the United States we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork, discipline, and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments. Learning to play music together does all this and more.

José Abreu, the founder of El Sistema, the children’s music curriculum currently considered to be the best in the world, says this: “An orchestra is a community that comes together with the fundamental objective of agreeing with itself. Therefore, the person who plays in an orchestra begins to live the experience of agreement. And what does the agreement of experience mean? Team practice, the practice of a group that recognizes itself as interdependent where one is responsible for others and the others are responsible for oneself. Agree on what? To create beauty.”

... As you may know, there is a conductor of staggering talent who has been hailed as the next Leonard Bernstein. His name is Gustavo Dudamel and he has toured the United States and Europe with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra to ecstatic reviews. He joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic as their Music Director in the fall. Here’s what matters to us today: this young conductor has a passion for music education because he knows its true power to alter the course of young lives. He was brought up in Venezuela in the extraordinary music education system that I mentioned earlier called El Sistema.

Imagine what can be accomplished if we support the arts, engage ‘at risk’ youth and help them succeed in school and in their lives. For ‘underserved’ families, indeed for all families, participation in music and the arts can help people reclaim and achieve the American Dream.

Read Linda Ronstadt's full testimony here >>
Learn more about El Sistema >>
Learn how YOU can help spread El Sistema >>

And watch Gustavo Dudamel as he conducts the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in a spine-tingling performance:

Hat tip: Phantom Galleries LA
Photo: TED/Asa Mathat

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

18 February 2009

How a transformative musical experience came to TED

In a basement studio in Caracas, Venezuela, three weeks ago, I had the most powerful musical experience of my life. TED Prize Director Amy Novogratz and I were standing five feet away from the conductor's stand in front of 200 Venezuelan virtuoso musicians -- their average age 16. Many of these kids had been born in the slums of Caracas or the poverty-stricken villages outside. They were part of the astonishing El Sistema program that had provided them instruments from an early age and countless hours of individual rehearsal and orchestral practice: a discipline that -- as some of them told us -- was transformative for them personally and even for their families.

They were known as the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, the pride of Venezuela, and we were hoping that they might be able to do an unannounced live-by-satellite performance for TED2009, which was just 10 days away. We were curious as to what kind of impact they might have. The conductor raised his baton. The first three notes had us leaping out of our skins, overwhelmed by a wall of sound. I had heard Shostakovitch before, but never like this. Passion, brilliance, precision and total commitment shone from every face. They didn't just play the music, they entered it, bodies swaying and occasionally darting to the rhythm. For 15 minutes, though it could have been a second or a lifetime, we were lost.

At the end of the performance, we got to tell them that they were soon to perform to a global audience connected by satellite -- and that their conductor that night would be the international phenomenon Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema's most famous graduate. The performance was to celebrate the TED Prize being granted to the revered founder of El Sistema, Jose Antonio Abreu. The air crackled with excitement. We got to film some of the kids playing individually and sharing some of their stories and views (and you can see some of them in Maestro Abreu's TED Prize acceptance speech).

10 days later, standing on the TED stage after Abreu's inspirational talk, shaking with anxiety about whether the technology would work, and whether the experience could possibly be shared this way, I announced the surprise performance. Unbelievably, it happened again. Electricity down the spine like never before. The a/v team in Caracas live-edited the talk to a quality level that boggled the mind. Dudamel entrancing, magnetic, the children sharing their souls through music in a way that few of us had experienced. And at the end, the longest standing ovation in TED's history.

And now here it is on TED.com. The same piece, exactly as we saw it ... no new editing. If you care about music, I urge you ... no I beg you ... set aside 20 minutes, connect to your computer the best speakers you own, gather your family or friends or colleagues around, turn up the volume, and accept this astonishing gift from a bunch of kids in another country who might have lived lives of futility ... but instead discovered the transformative power of music.

Posted by Chris Anderson | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

18 February 2009

Bonus TEDtalk tonight! Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra

A bonus TED Prize talk from TED2009: The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra contains the best high school musicians from Venezuela's life-changing music program, El Sistema, founded by 2009 TED Prize winner Jose Antonio Abreu (watch him make his TED Prize wish to spread this musical education plan around the world). Led here by Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra plays Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo Márquez' Danzón No. 2. (Recorded February 2009 in Caracas, Venezuela, and Long Beach, California. Duration: 17:06.)

Watch Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra -- and then watch Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize wish to bring this musical program to the world. On TED.com, you can download these TEDTalks, rate them, comment on them and find other talks and performances from our archive of 375+ TEDTalks -- including many more TED Prize wishes.

Get TED delivered:
Subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast via RSS >>
Subscribe to the iTunes video podcast
Subscribe to the iTunes audio podcast
Get updates via Twitter >>
Join our Facebook fan page >>

Subscribe to the TED Blog >>

Posted by TED Staff | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

18 February 2009

Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize Wish -- transcribed

We've transcribed Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize wish to use music to transform kids' lives and posted the full text below the fold. Here's a snippet:

The idea is that the families join with pride and joy in the activities of the orchestras and the choirs their children belong to. The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, which also lies within itself, ends up overcoming material poverty. From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, he's no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress heading for a professional level, who'll later become a full citizen.

Read the full transcript of Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize wish to use music to transform kids' lives >>

+ Watch Jose Antonio Abreu's talk on TED.com
+ Read Jose Antonio Abreu's bio on TED.com

Posted by Matthew Trost | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

18 February 2009

Jose Antonio Abreu: Help me bring music to kids worldwide (TED Prize winner!)

The opening talk from TED2009: Jose Antonio Abreu is the charismatic founder of a youth orchestra system that has transformed thousands of kids' lives in Venezuela. Here he shares his amazing story and unveils a TED Prize wish that could have a big impact in the US and beyond. (Recorded February 2009 in Caracas, Venezuela, and Long Beach, California. Duration: 16:56.)

Watch Jose Antonio Abreu's talk from TED2009 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 375+ TEDTalks -- including many more TED Prize wishes.

Get TED delivered:
Subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast via RSS >>
Subscribe to the iTunes video podcast
Subscribe to the iTunes audio podcast
Get updates via Twitter >>
Join our Facebook fan page >>

Subscribe to the TED Blog >>

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

06 February 2009

TED@PalmSprings reacts to the TED Prize wishes

The response to the TED Prize here at the TED@PalmSprings simulcast was enthusiastic and inspiring. After two days mesmerized, locked into "absorb" mode, TEDsters seem to be feeling the beginnings of a change in momentum toward collaborating ... and contributing. Fresh off of the emotional high of the wishes, ideas are flying. Here are just a few of the statements the TED Blog overheard following TED2009's "Dream" session.

+ "It was incredible. His wish for El Sistema in the United States is incredibly inspiring for any of us who love music, for those of us who are raised around music, for those who just appreciate music. I think it's something everybody can relate to. I'm totally on fire with it. I think it's awesome."

+ "This year in particular had more unusual types of wishes and prize winners with very different backgrounds. I think it will be difficult. But I think it's also inspiring."

+ "The concepts are really striking and engaging. I was really impressed with Sylvia Earle's wish. It was really backed up with a lot of great visuals. Literally her cadence and the way that she gave it was really powerful. As with a lot of the TED presentations, that really gave it a lot of impact, even though all three of them had really compelling concepts behind them."

+ "I think SETI is a massively worthy project. We all ought to be getting inspired about that. It's underappreciated and needs to be over-funded."

+ "The ocean project is so eloquently presented. I hope they can work the film into a massive public campaign to present this. Writing to your senators and congressmen might be a part of this. Writing to them and saying, 'Go and watch this.' It's totally essential and not expensive."

+ "We're canceling the programs in our public schools. That might be something to bring up. Just showing the inspired fascination of these kids to a school board -- sending a copy of the DVD -- and saying, 'Look, what possibilities you are missing.'"

Posted by Matthew Trost | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

05 February 2009

Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize wish: Help 50 young musicians

Above: Maestro José Antonio Abreu, founder of Venezuela's El Sistema, a plan for involving kids in classical music, makes this wish:

I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.

Learn more, and help grant this wish >>

Photo: TED / Asa Mathat

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)

05 February 2009

Jose Abreu: Inspiration comes full circle

Jose Abreu is well known for his inspiration of disadvantaged Venezuelan youth. His work with El Sistema and the beautiful music that it has produced are an inextricable part of the country and the region's culture and history. El Sistema has given huge numbers of children direction, purpose and opportunity that they may otherwise never have had. This is why the world knows Jose Abreu, and why tonight he received a TEDPrize.

Gustavo Dudamel conducts El Sistema orchestra Photo: TED/Asa Mathat

However, huge movements like El Sistema create ripples, and it is these ripples of inspiration that take effect in ways we might never consider. It is one of these tiny waves that came through my television, when I was a little girl in Trinidad and Tobago watching El Sistema in concert.

I remember my parents being very excited, and not understanding why, until my mother explained the mission and the vision of this particular orchestra. I remember thinking, "What a wonderful man, to help little kids like me to do things that other people said they couldn't." (People were always telling me all the things I could not do.)

As I get older, I can see how moments like this one have also given me direction and purpose. It is experiences such as these that allow me to have continuous optimism for humanity. It is this attitude that attracted me to TED. And tonight, I am a small part of helping to reward and recognize one of my earliest role models.

By Shanna Carpenter

Posted by TED Staff | Permalink

Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack (0)