What a wonderful concept! BBC’s Imagine had a program and reported about El Sistema in Venezuela; a scheme that provides children with free musical instruments and tuition in an attempt to re-socialise and improve the impoverished and disadvantaged. They put the fun back in learning music, too, because they don’t make the kids go through years of learning and practising an instrument prior to joining an orchestra. Instead, the children join the orchestra, and learn there and then.
One of the first pieces performed, they told us, is Tchaikovsky’s 4th. Not because it’s particularly easy, but because it is not particularly easy.
A very stimulating report from Venezuela. Great to see that the Venezuelean scheme has been adopted by Sistema Scotland, also known as The Big Noise. Please support them, if you get a chance.