© Nohely Oliveros / DG

Venezuela's Extraordinary Youth Orchestra

The organization's name is long, but its aim is simple. The Fundación del Estado l Sispara etema de Orquesta Juvenil e Infantil de Venezuela (Fesojiv for short) is the state foundation which watches over Venezuela's 125 youth orchestras and the instrumental training programmes which make them possible. The walls of the crowded Caracas head office are plastered with photographs of generations of beaming children and their instruments. So many grins, so many children, so many instruments that there is hardly any blank wall left.

Our first goal is not to create professional musicians," explains Xavier Moreno, secretary of Fesojiv. Our goal is to rescue the children."

In fact, with its 30 professional symphony orchestras and a growing stream of internationally acclaimed soloists, Fesojiv (which Venezuelans refer to as el Orquesta or the sistema) is not doing a bad job of creating professional musicians. But its greatest achievement are the 250,000 children who attend its music schools around the country, 90% of them from poor socio-economic backgrounds.

Lennar Acosta, now a clarinettist in the Caracas Youth Orchestra and a tutor at the Simón Bolívar Conservatory, had been arrested nine times for armed robbery and drug offences before the sistema offered him a clarinet.

At first, I thought they were joking," he recalls. I thought nobody would trust a kid like me not to steal an instrument like that. But then I realized that they were not lending it to me. They were giving it to me. And it felt much better in my hands than a gun."

Edicson Ruiz became the youngest-ever double bass player in the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of 17. Eight years earlier, he was working as a part-time supermarket packer to supplement his mother's meagre income in a rough inner-city suburb of Caracas. The street, with its alcohol, drugs and gang warfare, was a strong lure, and his behaviour was becoming increasingly violent. Then a neighbour told him about the local music school.

They gave me a viola and sat me in the middle of the orchestra. I heard the sound of the double basses, and I thought, yes! This is the instrument for me!" recalls Ruiz, grinning at the memory.

A few months later they put me in the national youth orchestra. Of course, I could not play the music! They always do it like that; they throw you in at the deep end.

I remember looking at the music on the stand at my first orchestral rehearsal. It was a Tchaikovsky symphony. And I thought, 'They are crazy!' But they never, ever say, 'You won't be able to do that.' Nobody ever said no to me in the orchestra. Never."

Acosta and Ruiz tell stories that are echoed by the 400,000 youngsters who have grown with the sistema since its inception. The principles are simple. Children as young as two are given an instrument as soon as they can hold it. Tuition, outings, music and, where necessary, social support are all furnished free of charge in return for the child's agreement to play in one of the sistema's ensembles. Lessons are in groups. Children who have mastered a scale or two are delegated to teach younger children. Peer support is fundamental. And orchestral playing is part of the programme from the beginning. Six days a week, four hours a day, the children play music together in one of 90 music schools, or núcleos, around the country.

Not surprisingly under these circumstances, their rate of progress is astonishingly fast. In an atmosphere of encouragement, affection, mutual support and sheer, unfettered joy in the music at hand, the children have often reached a level of instrumental accomplishment that would win them entry into a European university by the time they are in their early teens.

As more and more outstanding Venezuelan musicians hit the international circuit, the world is taking notice. Claudio Abbado has made extended visits to Venezuela, rehearsing and performing with the youngsters for weeks, and speaks of the "sistema" in superlative terms. Zubin Mehta, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and the late Giuseppe Sinopoli have all worked with the Venezuelan ensembles, and left expressing the highest praise. Simon Rattle has called it the most important thing happening in classical music anywhere in the world." The programme has received awards from UNICEF and UNESCO and expressions of admiration from figures as diverse as former South African president Nelson Mandela and actor Roger Moore.

Our pedagogy is based on individual creativity on the part of the teachers," says Abreu. They are very inventive. They have adapted the European methodology to our culture. And research has shown that music has changed the lives of the children, of their families, of entire communities here."

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© Nohely Oliveros / DG

Venezuela's Extraordinary Youth Orchestra

Shirley Apthorp 5/2006