Update: Conductor Gustavo Dudamel will travel to New York immediately following his performance at the Greek Theatre on Friday, Sept. 25, with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra to perform at the United Nations.
Some public events that are part of the orchestra’s Berkeley residency with Cal Performances have been rescheduled as a result.
A master class by Dudamel with the UC Berkeley Symphony, slated for Saturday, Sept. 26 and open to the public, will be rescheduled, and David Milnes will lead the event instead. Also, a public discussion with artistic director Matías Tarnopolsky will feature the orchestra’s concertmaster, Alejandro Carreño. No concerts are affected.
Original Post: Artistic literacy is one of the key principles enunciated by Cal Performances executive and Artistic Director Matias Tarnopolsky about the new UC Berkeley-based RADICAL program (Research and Development Initiative in Creativity, Arts and Learning). An associated principle is that of access to music, and Tarnopolsky found what he terms “the perfect way to launch RADICAL” with a residency, beginning next week, of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, with campus concerts (one to be streamed live by KDFC) showcasing the music of Beethoven.
The Bolivar Orchestra was itself developed as a showcase for El Sistema, the 40-year-old music education program that has developed artistic literacy among hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and brought access to Western classical music to both students and audiences across that country. Aside from the concerts, the residency here of the Bolívar Orchestra and of Dudamel (an El Sistema alumnus) will bring members of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra together with local young musicians who are among the tens of thousands to have embraced El Sistema worldwide. There will also be a film, a symposium on Beethoven’s Ninth with visiting scholars, a master class, and a staged talk with Maestro Dudamel, visits by Bolivar Orchestra members to Berkeley middle schools, and open rehearsals. SFCV spoke briefly by phone with Bolívar Orchestra concertmaster Alejandro Carreño, whose English is quite fluent but still idiosyncratic, about the residence and about El Sistema’s mission and accomplishments.
I saw a photograph of you and Maestro Dudamel playing the same violin, he wielding the bow and you fingering the neck. Is that indicative of the spirit of El Sistema?
[Laughs] We are like a family! I’ve known Gustavo since I was nine years old. Now I’m 30, he’s 34, so he’s very old compared to me. [Laughs again] This picture was at a party, and you have to have fun, with music. We cry and laugh; it’s important.
Fun is important?
Of course! When I was in the núcleo [an El Sistema regional center], as a boy, one of the things that made me want to go to rehearsals was sharing music with friends. Of course, you have the discipline, but also it’s important that you learn your music with friends.
You also had family support.
What are some of the basics of what El Sistema has accomplished in Venezuela?
Before, we had two big orchestras, in Caracas and Maracaibo, and both had mostly international musicians [brought in from abroad]. Now everybody can study music for free: You get the instruments, you get the teachers, you have the lessons, everything you need to be a musician.
And that’s all over the country?
We’re 700,000 now, in Venezuela. In any town, you will see people with cases — oboes, violins, contrabajos — walking around everywhere. The only thing you have to do is, be there and practice.
But doesn’t El Sistema mean more than just that?
When you talk with [Carreño’s father] and the other people who were there in the beginning, from the first rehearsal, Maestro Abreu was so intense: “You have to play with your heart and with your soul, you have to give everything.”
And the Venezuelan government has supported this effort?
Yes, from the beginning, 40 years ago, until now. Because it’s not just from one [administration], El Sistema is part of the state of Venezuela.
Do the El Sistema-trained classical musicians stay in Venezuela?
We have thousands who play in Venezuela. Of course, [among El Sistema alumni] you have Gustavo, who has the LA Phil, the Bolívar, and he conducts all over the world. You have Diego Matheuz, who just conducted [the LA Phil’s concert opera] in Los Angeles and La Fenice in Venice. We have Edicson Ruiz in the Berlin Philharmonic, and violinists and cellists all over. But of course, El Sistema uses music as a vehicle for integration [in Venezuelan life], and it doesn’t mean that every kid in El Sistema will be a musician. Some of our CEOs [of the núcleos] are medicos and engineers.
Has El Sistema gotten more Venezuelans out to concerts?
The culture of how to hear a concert, the expectation, is no doubt at a higher level now. And our audiences are mainly young people; that’s very important. "The culture of how to hear a concert, the expectation, is no doubt at a higher level now. And our audiences are mainly young people; that’s very important."
Do you see Maestro Dudamel as a representative of El Sistema’s success?
Definitely. When you see Gustavo conducting, his energy, his love for music, you know that as a person and as a musician, it’s not one person, it’s the energy of 700,000 kids and a whole country. In each beat, we feel very much represented, because that’s the way Maestro Abreu, from the very first rehearsal 40 years ago, did his music.
Are you and Maestro Dudamel excited about this Berkeley residency?
Very much! The first time the Orchestra was there [October 2012], everybody in the town was very kind with us. This time we are playing in an open space [the Greek Theatre; there’ll also be a Zellerbach Hall concert]. Of course, we have done that a lot here in Venezuela, playing in stadiums for 20 or 40 thousand people, and once in Scotland, but in the United States this is the first time.
Is that special, playing outdoors?
The audience will get more connected, through the power of the message of Beethoven [whose Ninth Symphony will be performed at the Greek].
And is the choice of Beethoven part of your message?
Maybe he was living in a moment when everybody needed that sort of message, but it’s very necessary at this time also.
How would you voice that message?
I’d use Gustavo’s words: that we have to build more bridges than borders between us. It’s very important that with this music we feel more connected. Beethoven created this bridge to the future of the music and of humanity.
Does the experience of this sort of music connect better with audiences outside?
They may feel more comfortable and think, “Okay, it’s not so bad, maybe we can go also to the concert hall”. The idea is to add people, because it’s not ‘classical’ or ‘pop’ or ‘rock’, it’s music!
It seems in the spirit of El Sistema that the chorus at the Greek will include students from the University as well as from a couple of Bay Area youth choirs. And local núcleos will be sending students to the campus. That’s evidence of the influence of El Sistema outside your country.
There are many initiatives outside of Venezuela, because El Sistema is a wonderful project for integration, for young people to be part of a community, without exclusion. So many different countries are now interested.
Beethoven was said to have had his own trials and tribulations as a kid. What would he have thought about El Sistema?
[Chuckles] He would be in love with it. Definitely!