Paterson Music Project: Global Impact, Scope and Depth of El Sistema

Writing to you after having been at the International Sistema Teacher’s Conference for two whole days. We’ve experienced a healthy dose of rain, bagpipes and kilts (but have somehow still managed to avoid the haggis). This has been a jam-packed two days with an overwhelming amount of information, people, and inspiration.

It’s interesting to note that at an international conference, each delegate comes with his or her own perspective of El Sistema. Each country has their own rules, laws, school systems, and culture, all which greatly impact what a program looks like. At one point we found ourselves in a deep discussion on how to deal with the issue of music often being the first thing cut in an academic world with delegates from India and Switzerland. Three people from three different countries on three different continents were all asking the same questions about their programs – how do we increase government and community support? How can we be inclusive and still maintain high musical standards? How can we communicate effectively with a team of teachers that have widely differing experiences and busy lives? It’s fascinating that the same problems are being brought up all over the world in completely different political, cultural, and social settings.

A delegate from Venezuela, Jesús Marín, talked about Abreu’s four principles for El Sistema; social inclusion, individual integrity, teamwork, and musical excellence. Beyond the original model in Venezuela, Jesus cited that we are all writing our own chapter in this book we call El Sistema. It is living, growing, and changing everyday.

The “El Sistema” of it all really hit us during today’s play along. Some of us delegates were lucky enough to play in Big Noise’s symphony orchestra rehearsal today. With all of the extra members, all parts were doubled, tripled or more! It reminded us of the Venezuelan orchestras that often look and sound twice as big as your typical orchestra. You might think that as professional musicians playing arrangements of “William Tell Overture” and the last movement of the “New World Symphony” with children, we were just treating the time as a way to observe rehearsal techniques. That was definitely not the case. When the conductors would stop to rehearse and had to tell the orchestra to quiet down, we all had slightly guilty looks on our faces – because we were the ones that couldn’t stop playing and talking! Looking around the room we could see that every single delegate was having just as much fun playing this music as they would in a professional orchestra with real parts. There was just so much energy and excitement in the room! Sometimes you forget the “El Sistema” when you are teaching and working the program everyday, but this play- along reminded us of why we buy into this philosophy and what we are all about – bringing joy to children through music.

Francis Cummings, Music Director of the El Sistema Scotland program, Big Noise, talked about how our work is challenging. There is an overwhelming amount of need in the world. Creating real change and impact takes time and devotion. We are not only going for broad impact with ESI programs, but also for deep impact. Francis mentioned a story about a woman who was on the beach and was standing in the midst of thousands of starfish that had washed up on the shore in a big storm. The woman was chucking the starfish one by one back into the ocean. The man asked her, “Why are you doing that? It’s not going to make any difference, there are thousands of starfish washed up on shore and you’ll never get them all back into the sea. “ The woman slung one more starfish into the ocean and said, “It matters a lot to that one.”

This story is meaningful and true when applied to teaching children. Every child is in need of positive role models, community, love, opportunities, etc. Sometimes it can feel frustrating or even pointless working and working to create something beautiful and meaningful for only a few students. There are over 40,000 students in the Paterson Public School District and we have 75 in our program. However, PMP is very meaningful to the students involved. We will also continue to grow and reach more students in the coming years.

The impact that PMP has in Paterson is a drop in the bucket of the impact that El Sistema has globally. I’ve learned about programs in Hungary that work with Gypsy families, programs from Austria and Switzerland collaborating to make music in Srebrenica, Bosnia, and students in Sweden meeting each Wednesday with family and teachers to sing songs and eat food as a community. How humbling is the scope and depth of El Sistema across the world!