El Sistema is Venezuela’s program of mass musical education, which for the past 30 years has been putting instruments in the hands of that country’s poorest, most at-risk children and training them to play in youth orchestras. From humble beginnings in 1975 with only 11 students, El Sistema has become a fundamental institution in the cultural life of Venezuela, enfolding a quarter of a million youths in a network of some 600 government-funded orchestras. El Sistema is a spectacularly successful social experiment, proving that passion for classical music is not a product of economic privilege. The Perlmans and Maazels of tomorrow can be found in the barrio, and El Sistema is getting them off drugs and delivering them over to the LvB crew.
The jewel of the system is the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, a crème-de-la-crème ensemble directed by Gustavo Dudamel, the 26-year old conducting juggernaut recently chosen to replace Esa-Pekka Salonen at the LA Phil in 2009. Simon Bolivar gave two concerts at Carnegie Hall this week, on Sunday November 11 and Monday the 12th. The first half of Monday’s concert featured Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, conducted by Dudamel; after the intermission, Simon Rattle took over for Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. It was one of the most moving and electrifying orchestral performances I have heard in recent memory. There was enough youthful energy to lift the roof, which is to be expected; but beyond that, there was a level of discipline and nuance usually heard only in much older, more experienced musicians.
The only disappointment is the glaring gender imbalance in the orchestra’s composition. Astonishingly, Simon Bolivar is an overwhelmingly male ensemble. This is evident visually, and it is confirmed by the roster and some quick math. Of the 203 players in the orchestra, 150 are male and 30 are female. I’m not sure about the remaining 23 – the gender associations of first names like Engels and Jhon aren’t obvious to me. This means that at least, and probably more than, ¾ of the players are male. In the string sections, where one would expect to see the most gender integration, males outnumber females by roughly 3 to 1. Let’s not even talk about the brass and percussion sections.
Wow. By the standards of top-tier orchestras in Europe and North America, these numbers would be unsurprising – or even encouraging, in light of history. But El Sistema is supposed to be an engine of egalitarian opportunity, and Simon Bolivar is its most meritocratic machine. Why isn’t the representation of males and females in the orchestra more balanced?
It would be interesting to know why this is occurring, and to consider what steps might be taken to bring more girls to the top of the system. The LA Phil recently announced plans for a new youth orchestra program modeled on Venezuela’s, targeting disadvantaged youths in the city’s most troubled neighborhoods. Let’s hope that here in this country we can take the already exemplary and inspiring model of El Sistema to new level of diversity.
