Reframing El Sistema

Reframing El Sistema: A Conference Connecting the Evolving Practice and Research of Social Action Through Music will bring together practitioners and researchers to explore issues of using intensive ensemble programs as a tool for both musical excellence and social development in the context of the global El Sistema movement.

The music education model developed in Venezuela over the past 40 years has stimulated youth community leaders, arts organizations, educational institutions, and funders worldwide to create “Sistema-inspired” programs in more than 50 countries during the last decade. While there has been increasing debate about the pedagogical methods and social objectives of Venezuela’s national youth orchestra system, emerging research suggests that alternative and “inspired” programs in development elsewhere in the world may more clearly represent how smaller-scale, progressive, equitable music education approaches can support the goal of social action through music. The conference will examine how the promise of El Sistema’s vision is being pursued outside of Venezuela while providing a platform for alternatives and exploring possible future directions. Through the lenses of music education, ethnomusicology, and youth development, conference participants will critically examine Sistema-inspired and alternative programs that seek positive and measurable social impact on students, families, and communities. Keynote speakers and presenters will discuss challenges and pose solutions, highlight needs and articulate new visions, and critique accepted theories and practices and posit new ones. The event aims to uncover new possibilities and understandings as to how the evolving practices of Sistema-inspired and alternative programs can contribute to progressive twenty-first-century music education and socially-driven youth development through music.

This two-day conference will be the first U.S. event dedicated principally to critical inquiry into the premises and practices of Sistema-inspired programs that provide evolving, alternative models to the national youth orchestra program. The event serves as an opportunity for practitioners, program leaders, and researchers to learn more about diverse, evolving pedagogical and research practices that characterize Sistema-inspired and other socially-driven youth music programs.

Featured Speakers:

– Shirley Brice Heath, Brown University & Stanford University Emeritus

– Dennie Palmer Wolf, WolfBrown Principal Researcher

– Jonathan Govias, University of North Carolina- Charlotte

Registration information forthcoming.

For additional information email: reframingelsistema@umbc.edu.