Estudiante

The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice

Marketing and Cultural Promotion

Cultural promotion for children: Musical Promotion in Latin America

Professor: Mariusz Wróbel

Student: Carlos Roberto Pena Montoya

Summer semester 2012

Introduction

There are many ways to promote culture for children and youth, projects such as organizing book fairs, spelling competitions,artistic exhibitions of works created by and for other children, theater plays for children and young people, to name a few.
That is why I wish to focus this paper on the promotion of music in Latin America, focusing on the model of "El Sistema" as a role model for the rest of the world to follow. Throughout this work I plan to explain the origin, structure, methodology and influence of thiseducational and cultural promoting model.

History of “El Sistema”
In 1975, maestro José Antonio Abreu began preparations to fulfill his dream of founding an orchestra wherein musical students were allowed to get together and practice. A 1964 official decree (which stated group practice as mandatory for public music schools’ students) encouraged the maestro and eight students of the old José ÁngelLamas music school to meet with the idea of conceiving a unique music education program by adapting other countries’ existing teaching methods to the reality in Venezuela.
Inviting more young musicians from Caracas and the interior of the country, particularly from the cities of Maracay and Barquisimeto (seedbed for Venezuelan musicians), Abreu was able to form the first National Symphony YouthOrchestra of Venezuela. The orchestra was founded on February 12, 1975, making its debut that same year, on April 30. That day, the orchestra started an amazing career taking it to the best stages of Venezuela and the world and earning it a UNESCO International Music Award in recognition of outstanding perseverance and achievements, and for being an example to the youth of the world.
Just ayear after its formation, the orchestra was recipient of many accolades at the Aberdeen International Festivals of Youth Orchestras, and over the course of the years has recorded albums in alliance with American and European labels, has successfully undertaken the challenge of performing with the most famous soloists as well as under the baton of the most renowned conductors. The orchestra became apowerful magnet attracting young Venezuelans. Music found in the Symphony Youth Orchestra means to reach other audiences: lower-income youngsters and public in general who have started to enjoy the beauty of a well-performed piece of Tchaikovsky, Mozart or Berlioz.
The Venezuelan orchestral phenomenon is deemed a miracle; however, the achievements fulfilled are the result of the constant effortand work ethic. José Antonio Abreu and “El Sistema” give example of what constant effort and dedication can accomplish.
The State Foundation for the National Youth and Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela was established on February 20, 1979 (Decree Nº 3039, Official Gazette Nº 31681) with the purpose of preparing highly qualified musicians and obtaining the finance required to execute plans,activities and programs. The State Foundation for the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela (FESNOJIV) was founded in 1996 in order to promote and develop the youth and children’s orchestras formed or that may be formed by El Sistema across the country; as well as to implement activities and programs aiming at the education and training of the orchestra’s members. From afunctional, educational, artistic and administrative point of view, “El Sistema” is made up of Núcleos operating in many cities and towns of Venezuela, thus integrating a complex and systematic network encompassing more than 150 youth orchestras and 70 children’s orchestras. In the last two decades, the regional symphony orchestras emerged from “El Sistema” have become independent state-funded...