It’s always heartening (to say the least) in troubled times to encounter something that’s working, something that’s going right, something that’s making things better.
That takes luck and the right people, of course.
Amanda Banister is the Associate Director of Musical Creativity at the Winspear Centre for Music, a centre which is the home of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Her department focuses on Educational Outreach. One such program is the Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta (YONA)-Sistema. (Courtesy: Carmen Effa)
And while I know little of karma or kismet or matches made in heaven, I do know that something that began in Venezuela in 1975 is bearing fruit in Edmonton, Alberta right now and has been for the past six years.
It’s called El Sistema.
Its motto is “Music for Social Change”
It was created by educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu, who died earlier this year.
Abreu was very clearly a man of great vision because In addition to supplying music lessons, his program provides kids with life lessons–getting along, pulling in the same direction.
The Edmonton edition of Abreu’s everlasting contribution to us all is being taught by–among others–Amanda Banister, with whom I had the pleasure of speaking by phone on Thursday.
The last day of school last spring. (Yona-sistema.com)
Banister teaches in The Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta (YONA)-Sistema program offered by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
The program sees students begin their music education on cardboard and plastic versions of their instruments before graduating to the real things.
It provides students grade 2 and up with free music lessons five days a week during the school year with teachers staying with the students until they graduate high school..
Students are trained in instruments–viola, violin, cello, and double bass–not normally taught in public schools.
But it’s not simply about the music.
Here is my conversation with Banister about a music program with soul.
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