Yesterday, the inaugural Abreu Fellows attended a simple lunchtime ceremony in Boston to commemorate their graduation. A year has passed since 10 amazing young musicians began the El Sistema USA program at New England Conservatory, learning all the skills they needed to follow in the footsteps of TEDPrize winner Maestro Jose Abreu. Using the example of his groundbreaking program in Venezuela they will be heading to seven different cities in the US to establish nucleos — programs and centers that will teach children to play music, believe in themselves and reach for their dreams. The Q&A that follows is a little bonus they provided the TED Blog at the end of their year.

Tell us about your experience in Venezuela! What was it like to finally meet Maestro Abreu?

Rebecca Levi: I don’t think that I truly understood El Sistema — or what I was working for — until I met Maestro Abreu. When he walks into a room, he sees every individual, turning even the most official meetings into intimate encounters. His emotional intelligence has inspired me to think about leadership in a whole new way.

Daniel Berkowitz: We experienced the impossible 3 times each day: a miracle in each nucleo, a complete society in every orchestra and extraordinary warmth from our nucleo hosts. The energy surrounding this mission was palpable throughout the country — a testament to Maestro Abreu’s empowering leadership. We were incredibly fortunate to experience the Maestro’s presence. I returned from Venezuela energized, honored, inspired, and ultimately humbled to be doing this important work.

Lorrie Heagy: People who had visited Venezuela and its nucleos told us the experience would be life-changing and now I see why. It’s become commonplace to enter a room of a nucleo and be deeply affected by music played in ensemble by hundreds of kids. Each nucleo is living out Dr. Abreu’s conviction that “the culture for the poor cannot be a poor culture.” As we traveled to different nucleos throughout Caracas, we discovered that each site is unique and adapts to meet the needs of its children and community. In fact, Dr. Abreu explained that El Sistema is not a system, but rather a living, breathing program that continues to grow and develop through the collaboration of many generations of teachers.

The process may vary, but the goal set forth by Dr. Abreu is constant: “creating better human beings.” This mission drives the decisions of its teachers and permeates the walls of every nucleo we visit. We hear it in the impassioned voices of the young nucleo directors and teachers (not much older than their students) and see it in the determined faces of children in the orchestra focused so intently on the music that they seem unaware of the crammed spaces and stifling heat.

Dantes Rameau: Meeting Abreu was an interesting experience. There was a mysterious aura around him. He was very thankful for having us in Venezuela for two months. He started by explaining a little bit about how and why he started El Sistema. And then, what started off as a casual get-to-know-you meeting turned into him giving us a 60-minute speech, off the cuff, about the value and righteousness of what El Sistema is about. At that point, I would have run through a brick wall for him.

Where were you and what did you during your internship?

Katie Wyatt: I was in New York City with the Harmony Program, working with young college students who were being trained to be teachers in El Sistema, while they were working with spunky young kinds in Harlem and Brooklyn. We pushed hard for two weeks to prepare these kids for recitals, which blew everyone away. I knew when Treasure, a 3rd grade trumpet player, turned to her teacher and bargained that instead of playing this “boring” exercise for the recital, she should play a piece that she composed instead, that we were making progress!

Jonathan Govias: I spent my internship in Cleveland, working with a Chamber orchestra that is actively redefining the orchestra model for community engagement. They don’t compartmentalize education or outreach but make both the equal pillars of their operation. They’re not big — LA Phil spent three times their annual budget promoting Dudamel alone — but they do some of the most honest, sincere, non-publicity seeking work in the nation, bringing music to underserved areas and fostering a participatory culture.

How has the last year changed you as a person and as an educator?

Christine Witkowski: The first time I ever played music in harmony was in 6th grade band class to “Go Tell Aunt Rhodie.” I have very little doubt that this was a painfully out of tune performance with squeaking clarinets and chipped notes, but to me, it was magical. Later, with years of refinement and the help of my amazing teachers, I became a much better musician — but I also traded much of my wonderment in for critique. This year, I have regained that genuine awe for music because I have experienced it again, playing with children in El Sistema. The skills of my training, the perspective of my kids and the vital purpose of this movement have all made my life in music much fuller. The meaning behind all the music and all the work — tocar y luchar — is quite clear.

Katie Wyatt: I discovered that so much more is possible than I ever dreamed of. I will no longer place limits, of any kind, on a child. And the same applies for me, and everyone I work with and care for.

Alvaro Rodas: I have a larger appreciation for what I thought was a flaw: having to be a part-time teacher, administrator and performer was seen in this country as an “incomplete”, segmented professional. Some people call me a sort of Renaissance man, but there was always a condescending tone in that. Now I know that this is a whole profession that has a large important goal and purpose. I feel validated in what I have been doing for some years now.

Stanford Thompson: Until I saw Jose Abreu’s TED Prize wish, I understood my role as a performer and that I needed to achieve the highest level of ability to be accepted as a professional musician. After seeing the video, I dug deep inside to figure out what my purpose as a musician was. The Abreu Fellows program taught me that my role as a musician goes beyond being a performer, but also an administrator, an educator, a social worker, citizen, and a scholar. Now I feel that I have a bigger flame that I can pass along to the entire community.

What are your plans for the year ahead?

Lorrie Heagy: Imagine 60 kindergarteners in Juneau, Alaska, playing violin together during the school day! Thanks to the support of the Association of Alaska School Boards and the Glacier Valley Parent Group, the school’s kindergarten teachers, local Suzuki violin instructor and I will team together to offer group violin lessons to every kindergarten class three times a week, free of charge. This El Sistema-inspired program is called JAMM (Juneau, Alaska Music Matters) and hopes to expand to more grade levels, more Juneau schools and after-school hours in the coming years.

Christine Witkowski: I am moving to LA to become the program director for the newest Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) El Sistema inspired program at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA). I will have 80 first graders on strings and 40 fourth graders on winds in the first year!

Dantes Rameau: Atlanta is a beautiful city with a great music and arts scene. Alongside that there are several large communities in Atlanta that do not have close access to instrumental and choral music training, but who have the right to experience it. This combination of vibrant arts scene and substantial need are an ideal landscape for an El Sistema program. It is in this vein that I and a team of dedicated Atlantans will launch the “Atlanta Music Project” in late 2010. Inspired by El Sistema, we will target underserved communities in Atlanta and be a safe haven where kids will be able to come after school to grow and play music together.

How can the TED community help to support you/el Sistema in the U.S.?

Rebecca Levi: I hope that the TED community can continue to reach out as individuals to us, especially as David and I start work in a new city. We hope that we can help El Sistema Boston grow, so any support in that endeavor would be greatly appreciated.

Katie Wyatt: Keep the movement alive! Please, read our blogs, tell your friends, and DREAM BIG! As Maestro Abreu has shown us, all you have to do is start — even if it’s with 11 kids in a garage.

Jonathan Govias: All TED needs to do is to make sure that this idea, along with all the other great ones the organization supports, doesn’t fall out of the consciousness of its membership. The support of TED as an organization has been invaluable, but it’s the membership, the individuals with their passion and commitment for great ideas, who will make it happen locally. There will only be 50 Abreu Fellows, but there’s no limit to the need in America and beyond.

To find out more about all the Abreu Fellows and follow their journey, please visit the El Sistema USA website here >>

-- Shanna Carpenter

An update from Alvaro Rodas, Abreu Fellow -

It already feels like a lot of time has passed, but we got back from our 2-month visit in Venezuela only 3 weeks ago. The visit, which was the most eagerly anticipated part of the Abreu Fellows Program, took us to over 60 youth orchestra centers (known as “nucleos”) all over the country.  What an amazing experience for all of us!

But now back in the U.S. our first task was to reflect on our individual and group experiences in Venezuela and prepare to present them in Los Angeles on May 7th at symposium called “Composing Change: YOLA [Youth Orchestra Los Angeles] and the El Sistema Movement.”  The Los Angeles Philharmonic organized this gathering in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras and El Sistema USA/Abreu Fellows Program.  Over 250 delegates from youth and professional orchestras, as well as other community organizations came from 26 states and 6 countries.

Our presentation in the symposium included the most relevant and inspiring ideas that we are bringing back to the United States: Ideas of access, community, connectedness, intensity and passion, playing and striving (tocar y luchar).  Our reflections were warmly received (we felt overwhelmed by a standing ovation!), and helped to give a deeper meaning to other demonstrations in the symposium, the most important being an open rehearsal of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), conducted by none other than Gustavo Dudamel.

Right after the symposium, we are in the last stretch of the Abreu Fellows Program:  a 3-week internship to work with new El Sistema projects in the U.S. and beyond.   These internships take Dantes Rameau to Atlanta, Stanford Thompson to Chicago, Katie Wyatt to New York City, Rebecca Levi, David Malek and Christine Witkowski to Los Angeles, Jonathan Govias to Cleveland, Alvaro Rodas to San Antonio and Lorrie Heagy to Scotland.

After experiencing the response at the symposium and the enthusiastic welcome to the fellows in their internships, we feel more committed than ever before to the growth of this movement.

Click here for a recent feature on the fellows program in Symphony Magazine.

The Abreu Fellows need your help in winning a $250k grant through the Pepsi Refresh program. Please vote for them and the other projects they’re partnered with everyday through the end of the month. Their ranking has risen dramatically and with your help they have a shot at winning the grant.

VOTE For the fellows: http://www.refresheverything.com/ElSistema

Please vote for these other inspiring music based projects as well:

• http://www.refresheverything.com/HVYWE
• http://www.refresheverything.com/Fiddleback
• http://www.refresheverything.com/AdoptAnInstrument
• http://www.refresheverything.com/MusicStudentNeeds
• http://www.refresheverything.com/MusicianCorps

The Abreu Fellows are in the running for a $250,000 grant from Pepsi! They have applied as a group and will split the money between our 9 different programs, leaving $25,000 to fund a 2010-11 Abreu Fellow. $25,000 a piece will buy instruments for Lorrie’s kids in Juneau, Alaska, support Dantes’ teaching artists in Atlanta, GA, strengthen Katie’s El Sistema network in Durham, NC, and much more! But the grant is awarded based on votes, and Pepsi will only be giving out two $250,000 grants this month. So please, vote for them once a day for the month of March at http://www.refresheverything.com/elsistema

From all the Fellows, thank you for your support!

A brief look into the Abreu Fellows‘ recent experience at TED2010…

Wednesday morning. The sun was shining in California, as five of the ten Abreu Fellows walked down the promenade to the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Feeling cool in our shades and sandals, we realized: We are not in Boston anymore. We walked into the theater, and those 1,500 seats looked like 15,000. Hearts racing, palms sweaty, we imagined what it would be like to get up in front of so many people. And then Thomas Dolby and Ethel started to rock out on “Bittersweet Symphony.” Deep breath. As we ate up talks on behavioral economics and solutions to poverty and reveled in some sweet ukulele music, we thought: Maybe this is going to be okay.

Wednesday afternoon. Hanging out with DeeDee in the hair and make-up room made the wait much more fun. And she made us look fabulous in hi-def. Thanks to the AV guys too for all their help! From our front row seats, we got so caught up in Frank Drake’s, Daphney Singo’s and Peter Knight’s talks that we were surprised when we heard Amy saying: “And here from Boston are five fellows…” And there we were! Nerves gone, we grooved to our little speeches and got down to our version of Marquez’s “Danzón No. 2.” It was amazing to share that experience with each other… and with all of TED! What a trip.

Wednesday night. Fueled by adrenaline from our performance and from watching Jamie Oliver and Sheryl Crow close the show, we sauntered over to Pine Street, where we had a great dinner, meeting so many of the folks who have supported Dr. Abreu’s TED Prize Wish. We were thrilled to see some of our “professors” at the block party, too: Carl Haney, Jeff Walker, Natalie Markoff, Michael Melcher, Don Jones and of course, our beloved director, Mark Churchill. We were up until far too late, chatting with our new buddies…

Thursday morning. Up bright and early for breakfast with some good friends of the Abreu Fellows Program. Many thanks to Amy, Anna, Chris Anderson and the entire TED team for making our time in Long Beach possible—and so much fun!

Photo Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

At TED2009, Maestro Jose Abreu revealed his TED Prize wish, asking that a special program be created to train gifted young musicians so that they could recreate the highly successful El Sistema program around the world. Those young musicians, the Abreu Fellows, have just finished the first semester of their program at New England Conservatory, and are preparing for the second when they will spend two months at the original El Sistema in Venezuela. This amazing video conveys their journey so far, and the Q&A that follows was completed as an exclusive bonus for the TED Blog at the end of their semester.

How has this semester affected you? Has it changed or solidified any of your ideas, thoughts, plans and why?

Rebecca Levi: This semester has made my nebulous definition of a movement concrete: We are the movement! The relationships that the ten of us are forming will strengthen the web that El Sistema USA needs to thrive. In addition, I have been thrilled to indulge in some of the “deep thinking” I did during my literature degree — we’ve been searching for themes, making connections, seeing patterns, and it’s all for a cause that we deeply believe in!

Stanford Thompson: The semester has been full of hope and possibilities for the future of the music education in the United States and beyond. The fellowship has solidified my passion for bringing music education to children (especially those in need), helped to focus my thoughts about what an ideal music program could look like, and directed those thoughts into theories of action that I am working to implement in Reading and Philadelphia, PA, Atlanta, GA and Meru, Kenya.

Who has been your favorite professor/ guest lecturer over the semester? Why?

Jonathan Govias: We had a fantastic session with Elizabeth Baback of the Crittenton Women’s Union. She’s an amazing model of someone who’s both passionate and extremely well informed — rare qualities in combination.

David Malek: This is an impossible question to answer considering all the amazing people that have been put before us. That being said, one of my favorite presenters has been Larry Scripp. Larry addressed the issue of musical literacy, but within the larger context of redefining the role of the artist from that of a performer or teacher to that of a citizen/artist/teacher/scholar — it is really a complete paradigm shift.

What’s something specific that you’ve learned from another Fellow? Tell me what you learned, who you learned it from and the story of how you learned it.

Dantes Rameau: I learned from Stan (and his parents) the importance of having a family or people that support you when you’re growing up. I went to Atlanta with Stan to look into starting El Sistema there and got to spend some time with his family. They reminded me a lot of my parents. On Stan’s family’s basement walls, which are plastered with photos of the great jazz musicians, his father hung these wise words on a piece of paper: “Those that enter here are slated for greatness. You are in the company of the best musicians alive.” So I learned from Stan, by way of his parents, that it’s important that growing up, every kid hears things like that as much as possible. As a nucleo leader I will tell them this and the music we play will show them.

Lorrie Heagy: It’s no secret among the fellows that I am very new to Facebook. They laugh that I can create webpages, iMovies and detailed blogs, but don’t know how to add photo albums to my Facebook! Needless to say, I haven’t done much in the way of updating my Facebook page because of it. Imagine my surprise when I click on my page and find movies, photos and links related to the Abreu Fellowship added weekly, sometimes daily! How’d this happen? Dante, who has been responsible for most of the additions, had to sit me down and explain the art of “tagging.” Thank you, Dante and the other Abreu Fellows for making me look so Facebook savvy!

What do you plan to do during your break?

Katie Wyatt: I will be home in North Carolina, touching base with my board, and drinking many cups of coffee with teachers, community leaders, and supporters of KidZNotes — the El Sistema nucleo I will manage in Durham, NC. In January, I will join New England Conservatory student musicians in a string quartet presentation at the Panama City Jazz Festival, where I will give a masterclass for music students on the potential to pursue their passion through careers in music and social change.

Alvaro Rodas: I want to continue my exploration of the Corona neighborhood in Queens, New York. I became interested in this neighborhood and hope to start a couple of stand-alone choral projects. First, I want to establish a strong link with the community — leaders, parents, teachers and authorities — and have them own this initiative. I hope to organize at least one meeting with people in the community where I can talk about El Sistema in general, and El Sistema USA in particular, to measure the interest of those leaders in moving ahead with projects in the near future. At the same time, I want to use these break to engage potential allies and supporters among my network of friends and colleagues in the city.

What are you most looking forward to about your time in Venezuela? What are you hoping to experience while there?

Christine Witkowski: First, I am most excited to see how the nucleos in Venezuela function within their communities at large. How does a music school actually become the center for the community? How have they gotten so many people engaged and excited about el sistema? Second, I am SO excited to play horn with the kids in the nucleos! Music will have to be the primary form of communication for me, and I know I will learn the most about these programs and people by playing with them. Sharing music is so meaningful and sincere. And we’re brass players, so we will have a lot of fun!

Jonathan Govias: I’m very eager to witness first-hand the social change wrought by music there — this is the heart of everything we do, and much like music, I imagine it will be expressed most profoundly in ways other than words or numbers.

Dan Berkowitz: Our Venezuela trip provides an opportunity to be totally immersed in the nucleus of this movement. Two months of exploration and study will enhance each of our visions on every level.

What’s one thing you hope to accomplish by spreading the El Sistema program? What impact do you see it having on young lives and/ or communities in the US?

Katie Wyatt: I hope to change the minds of young people. I hope that after being members of an El Sistema community, they will make different decisions, better decisions, about the way they treat each other, the way interact in their communities, and the future they feel they deserve. I hope they will develop empathy for those they are touched by and those they reach through their music, and thus join a global community of tolerance and understanding.

Stanford Thompson: I want to get communities fired up about life and possibilities by spreading the El Sistema program. If music can change a person on an individual basis, I know that music can change a community. If music can change a community, I know it can change a city. If music can change a city, I know it can change a state… and you know the rest.

Christine Witkowski: In Dr. Abreu’s words, I hope to facilitate a great “affluence of spirit” in disadvantaged youth through music. The music school becomes the center for the child’s support network — it is here that the student, family, friend and teacher congregate. From this support network, a child-centered community is cultivated, creating a safe and supportive space where music nurtures the whole child. The self-esteem, creativity, responsibility, cooperative learning skills and self-expression acquired gives each child the ability to contribute fully and gracefully within the life of her community now and in the future.

– Shanna Carpenter