El Sistema

The Venezuelan youth orchestra program known as "El Sistema" has attracted much attention internationally, partly via the activities of its flagship orchestra, The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra headed by Gustavo Dudamel, and partly through its claims to use classical music education to foster social inclusion. The System has become a paradigm for music education around the globe, having been met almost solely with praise. Yet, despite El Sistema's significance in shaping and influencing music education programs throughout much of the world, it has been the subject of surprisingly little scrutiny and genuine debate. In this first full-length critical study of the program, Geoffrey Baker explores the career of its founder, Jose Antonio Abreu, and the ideology and organizational dynamics of his institution. Drawing on a year of fieldwork in Venezuela and incorporating insights from a range of academic disciplines, Baker examines El Sistema's program of "social action through music," overturning prevailing notions of the system as a force for social betterment. Abreu, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, emerges as a complex and controversial figure, whose project is shaped by his religious education, business management training, and political apprenticeship. Claims for the symphony orchestra as a progressive pedagogical tool and motor of social justice are questioned, and assertions that the program prioritizes social over musical goals and promotes democracy, meritocracy, and teamwork are also challenged. Through interviews with numerous Venezuelan musicians and cultural figures, Baker places El Sistema in historical and comparative perspective, revealing that it is far from the revolutionary social program of contemporary imagination, and illustrating how it represents less the future of classical music than a step backwards into its past. A controversial and eye-opening account sure to stir debate, El Sistema is an essential read for anyone fascinated by this phenomenon in the world of music education.