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FanFaire celebrates...                              Venezuela's EL SISTEMA
"...enriching lives, saving lives"

The impact that EL SISTEMA has made on Venezuela's children can best be gleaned from the words of those whose lives it has touched.  Below are some quotes, beginning with GUSTAVO DUDAMEL's, today's "hottest" young conductor who has become the icon of El Sistema, and ending with today's children, age 15 and younger, whose young lives are being transformed with obvious joy and in more ways than one by the magic of music.


GUSTAVO DUDAMEL:

On El sistema:
"A project that has no results has no reason for being.  The system has produced results. I see it, I have lived it, I am a product of the system.

I studied music since I was four.  And since then I have become part of a family.  And that family has taught me things, not only about music, but about things I have to face in life. And that is where the success of the system lies."

Explaining the nature of time and the magic of music to the children of El sistema:
"Time is relative.  Stravinsky once said in a conference that time IS.  It is in space and when a musician makes music, he takes it from the time he is living in.  It is not like I just arrive and say, one, two, three, four.  It is something that is there, and we do not know what it is.  And that is the magic of music."

On a then  upcoming nationwide concert celebration by El sistema's 250,000 children: 
A concert created by our present, but above all, of our future.

EDICSON RUIZ (A bass player, he became at age 17 the youngest member of the Berlin Philharmonic):

"When I began with the orchestra, I felt I was becoming part of a young family; I would say precious and warm. Today the orchestra means for the world the only way that music can touch human souls and change the individual.  To transform all those feelings and our future is possible through music.  Which art could be better? That is what the orchestra means to our country - salvation and transformation."


THE FIRST GENERATION / THE PIONEERS:

"The first meeting was in that parking lot in Candelaria...  Before that rehearsal began, a man I did not know appeared.  He said, "This orchestra is going to reach far, not only in Venezuela but throughout the world. You are the pioneers of this important project and have the responsibility to bring this knowledge to the children of our country."

The spirit was sowed from the first rehearsal.  And that force multiplied - into a way of life, a way of interpretaion, a need for expression."

"This resembles the garden of divided dreams so much.  Each of us had a dream at one time to be realized in music, and all these dreams converged in the wonderful dream of Maestro Abreu - a country planted with orchestras beyond all perspective.  What has been done is to plant in each of us the conviction of what is possible, and with the motto "To play and to fight" it has been hammered into every single one of our souls  - the certainty that what can be done if it is done with love and conviction cannot be stopped, cannot be detained."

"That is what has characterized the Venezuelan music system since we were in the youth orchestra, which was similar to today's children's orchestra. They have the sound that echoes in the souls of the listeners - since the beginning of our Orchestras."

"Those who had invested their lives since they were children, those had faith in themselves."

"Above music, humility.  And that word, humility, we must pass on those who are coming next.  If we are the first generation, and we have learned the lesson well, and if we could pass it on, I would say the sky is the limit."

THE CHILDREN OF EL SISTEMA:

Gems from the "mouths of babes":

Kenneth (violin):  "I think that God must be like music, because something so beautiful can only be the work of God."

Daniel (trumpet, a blind boy): "When I play, I feel a connection between my trumpet and myself. Because there is a saying that how you feel is how the trumpet will sound.  If you are mad, the trumpet will sound bad, as if it were mad.  If you play from the heart, regardless of what piece you play....

I liked the trumpet because of its sound, its shape, the metal, how it feels."

Daniel (cello): "Here one can see my cello - I cannot sleep if I am not next to my cello.

The first thing I would do is put an orchestra in every institution where children would be able to experience what music is and learn in a fun way.  Even though it also involves discipline, and everything is not just goofing around.  It is also about learning techniques as a daily habit."

Joyce (violin):  "I feel like I have discovered a new world. A world where I have fun - I laugh, I cry, I learn from my teachers. I steal their ideas, their techniques - all that.  That is where you life goes - there with the instrument. Then you are only aware of the instrument and of school, and you forget everything else, you forget vices."

Rony (trumpet): "I used to play the cornet. They gave it to me because of my size and age. Then I went to the trumpet seminar, and there I met the trumpeter from the Berlin Philharmonic, Thomas Clamor. He heard me, and said my sound was good... and he brought me this trumpet."

Lila (violin): "I was told that the motto "TO PLAY AND TO FIGHT" was created when Maestro Abreu started this orchestra system. He had no hope that it would work.  Someone came up to him and said 'You must always fight for what you want, especially if it is about music,' and told him always to remember he has to PLAY and FIGHT."

CLICK HERE to join a FanFaire-DGG GIVEAWAY of the CD "Mahler: Symphony No. 5" with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

Source of quotes: The award-winning film by Alberto Alvero, Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight), available on DVD, that tells the phenomenal story of EL SISTEMA.


Credit: Images and video clip courtesy of and with permission of Deutsche Grammophon.

                                     SUPER CONDUCTOR            SIMON BOLIVAR YOUTH ORCHESTRA            MAHLER 5th

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