El Sistema

for kids to learn music in.

One that I saw in my visits to Venezuela, haven't been there for quite some time, but with El Sistema, there was one teaching center that literally had a class space under a stairwell at a racetrack.

or an abandoned theater.

And I attended a rehearsal and it was rainy season, so it started to rain and you could literally see the rain falling through the roof.

Like, how do you wanna do a commission fee?" And we kind of set up this fund that pretty much raised money for them, raised money for a nonprofit that was helping humanitarian efforts throughout the Ukraine war.

Did another one with El Sistema Colorado, if you're familiar with the El Sistema system.

That one is very close to my heart in that this is very similar to the student population I worked with when I worked in Maryland, and it's a lot about getting kids instruments, even stuff as simple as, like, "Hey, when you come to rehearsal, we've got, you know, some snacks and stuff for you, got some meals to go home with," that kind of thing.

So it's something that I try and keep as the DNA of my composing business.

Uh, it's not something that I do with every single piece or every s- uh, you know, every single project, but it's something where I try, like, once a year or just at least to be open to stuff where, like Oh man, this makes a lot of sense.

Like, the El Sistema, we just kind of teamed up, wrote it for them, give those kids a chance to premiere a new piece of music, raise a little bit of money at their concert for it.

So it kind of encompasses everything in that there's not, like, one set kind of project that I'm doing with it.

But I just think that music in itself is just, like, an inherently beautiful and human thing, and can we kind of, like, dig into that part of it and every once in a while take a step back and be like, you know, I think this is gonna do something.

And when that voice is given space to be heard, and it is organized in a way that, and presented in a way that the community can come around, that is what makes it a community building situation.

Because we need to be able to have a place where our youth have that voice and can say something and oftentimes we minimize what the youth are saying and we are built off of a program in venezuela known as el sistema and the one of the mantras that uh the founder of el sistema in venezuela is is trust the young uh or believe the young and This has been something that I think we have always had at our core is that we believe that the youth have something to say.

And what Soundscapes has been great at doing is building these conversations.

venues and building these forums where and a concert is the perfect place for that, where the youth can come together and say something to the community.

So really listening to what the community was demanding and trying to problem solve.

We need to understand that.

well, what are the opportunities? What are the strategies? So we started there, did an amazing engagement with other El Sistema programs and the community members and your partners and your families.

And the overwhelming message was, yes, yes, adapt, evolve, whatever you need to do, we just want more.