“El Sistema” Music Education.
Filmmakers Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier went to Venezuela to capture the human faces of “El Sistema,” a state-sponsored nationwide network that uses music as a tool for empowering children and lifting them out of poverty, violence, and dead-end slums.
This is one of the most inspirational documentaries on the power of music you are ever likely to see.
The camera lens is quick to find the eager, young musicians, who spend a total of 24 hours a week, from kindergarten through to high school graduation, practicing and performing music.
We see the magic through the eyes of the children, as well as through Sistema founder José Antonio Abreu and his dedicated network of administrators, mentors and teachers.
Through this video, we see and hear that the quality of music teaching and performance is second to none. Children are immersed in music at the earliest age, and start in a Paper Orchestra, by playing instruments made of paper before graduating to real instruments within six months.
And from that early age, children learn that music making is about passion and feeling, not just technique; and then music becomes integral to their lives like the air they breathe.
Interspersed throughout are insightful interviews and comments from the teachers, and from conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Here is Gustavo Dudamel, telling us more about El Sistema:
And next, here is the El Sistema Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra directed by Gustavo Dudamel, performing at the Salzburg Festival:
Tags: El Sistema, Gustavo Dudamel, Paul Smaczny, Maria Stodtmeier, Venezuela, Documentary
