De Musica Ligera: Nobel for “El Sistema”?

The latest edition of the Grammy Awards on Sunday night will most likely be remembered for Adele winning six trophies as well as the tributes to the recently deceased Whitney Houston. In terms of Latino music, one of the event’s biggest surprises was Mana beating out Calle 13 to win in the Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Album category. Yet an even greater surprise could occur later this year thanks to another Grammy winner: Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Dudamel may’ve won his Grammy with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of Brahms' Fourth Symphony, but since 1999 he has served as the music director of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. This orchestra is an important product of El Sistema, a novel music education program run in Venezuela. Founded in 1975 by former economist José Antonio Abreu, the El Sistema network has helped teach classical music to at least 250,000 youth including children from impoverished economic backgrounds. The program has received government support since 1977 and has been critically acclaimed around the world.

In 2008 Abreu won both the Glenn Gould Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for he Arts. He could earn a greater recognition later this year after representatives of the International Hagiography Academy nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. “Master Abreu has met all the conditions because he made music the language of peace and a symbol of Venezuela,” proclaimed the Academy’s president, Monsignor Rafael Febres Cordero, last month.

Should José Antonio Abreu become the first Latin American in two decades to win the Nobel Peace Prize? Perhaps the music from the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra will help you decide:

Video Source – YouTube via TEDtalksDirector

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, The Onion A.V. Club, The Telegraph, El-Nacional.com

Daily Headlines: September 2, 2009

* Guatemala: In a historic decision, a former Guatemalan paramilitary was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the disappearances of six campesinos during the country’s brutal civil war.

* Dominican Republic: While Muammar al-Gaddafi celebrated his fourth decade in power, Dominican and Libyan representatives agreed to establish diplomatic ties.

* Cuba: Amnesty International urged the Obama administration to drop the “immoral” embargo on Cuba which has deprived Cubans of receiving “vital medicines and medical equipment essential for their health."

* Venezuela: Venezuelan composer and National System of Venezuelan Youth and Children's Orchestras creator Jose Antonio Abreu received Sweden’s top music honor along with musician Peter Gabriel.

Image- BBC News (Investigators continue to dig the presumed graves of dozens of Guatemalans who vanished during the civil war from 1960 to 1996.)
Online Sources- Reuters, BBC News, Guardian UK, Boston Herald, Press Association

Venezuelan "Sistema" founder wins prestigious prize

He is Jose Antonio Abreu- the mind behind the critically acclaimed National System of Venezuelan Youth and Children's Orchestras. Also known as El Sistema, the network has taught music to thousands of mostly impoverished youths including abused kids and children with disabilities. The system is best known for its most famous graduate- Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel- and has been copied in more than twenty countries.

For his work, Abreu was named as the co-recipient of Sweden’s biggest music award: the Polar Music Prize. "Driven by a vision that the world of classical music can help improve the lives of Venezuela's children, he created the music network El Sistema, which has given hundreds of thousands the tools to leave poverty" said the Swedish Royal Academy of Music about Abreu. Along with the deserved recognition, Abreu will also receive $128,000 at a gala ceremony in Stockholm on August 31.

Abreu’s dream to teach music to Venezuelan youth has helped push El Sistema to prominence:

"Art education is an essential component of the educational system," says Abreu, a deceptively soft-spoken man with the fiery social conscience of a Jesuit reformer, speaking at El Sistema's central offices here. "It cannot be a peripheral element. It's not possible that a child would have access to an arts education as an option, by accident or out of charity. Because an aesthetic formation is that which touches our sensibility. Art and religion influence, definitely, the formation of our values."

Abreu will receive this year’s Polar Music Prize along with British musician Peter Gabriel; as we mentioned in March, he has lent his humanitarian efforts to bring justice for the hundreds of unsolved deaths of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Image- eitb.com
Online Sources- AHN, CBS News, The Latin Americanist, Los Angeles Times, BBC News