Recapping Understanding El Sistema

I recently curated Understanding El Sistema, a summer institute at NEC that brought together teaching artists and administrators in the Creative Youth Development space for three days of learning, reflecting, and connecting. This experiment was directly informed by my experience directing NEC's Sistema Fellows Program. Since that five-year initiative ended in 2014, part of my long-term work has been to design new opportunities to make the Program's unique curriculum, refined across five classes of Fellows, more broadly accessible.

Two of my earlier initiatives directly inspired by the Sistema Fellows Program curriculum included El Sistema Survey (Investigating Music Education for Social Change) and Building a Community-based Residency, courses through NEC's School of Continuing Education. 

photo by Andrew Hurlbut

Along with several photos, here is a selection of positive feedback from the participants. (To be sure, there was also constructive feedback that will help me refine aspects of the institute for next time!) 

"I am super inspired, recharged and more committed."

"Tina’s discussion of core values was particularly useful. For the first time, I REALLY understood the point of agreeing on, articulating and sharing the core values regularly."

"​I came away from the institute feeling really energized and with a deeper understanding of the work being done by teaching artists in all sorts of El Sistema-inspired programs."

"We are going to incorporate more elements that include Youth Voice into our program and actively work on shaping our organizational culture."

"As I prepare to take on a full-time position at an El Sistema-inspired music program this fall, this workshop was the perfect precursor. It assured me that I’m on the right path and that my mindset, goals, and mission are in alignment." 

​"I find myself often operating in a vacuum. It was interesting to hear from others doing the same work about their challenges and struggles." 

"I enjoyed talking to people in-depth during the Office Hours, and making connections that I will likely keep up after the institute."  ​

"Loved the MYCincinnati case study – nice to see an in-depth example of a program that is working well, hear Laura’s honest descriptions of lessons learned."

​"It was an enormously beneficially experience to get to dive deeper into this work with a team from my organization." ​

​Here's a snapshot of the Institute's schedule of activities:

Friday, June 1
9:30 coffee & pastries
10:00 Welcome & Introductions (Heath Marlow) 
10:30 El Sistema in Venezuela (Rodrigo Guerrero, Erik Holmgren)
11:30 Case study: MYCincinnati (Laura Jekel)  
12:30 Lunch (provided)
1:30 Creative Youth Development (Erik, Rodrigo)
2:30 Case study: Music Haven (Tina Lee Hadari)                          
3:30 Office Hours #1 (Tina, Laura, Erik, Rodrigo, Heath)          
4:30 Mission, Vision, Values (Heath, Tina, Laura)                  
5:30 Reflective Writing

Saturday, June 2
9:00 Office Hours #2 (Tina, Laura, Heath)   
10:00 Participant Sharing, Responses to Day One
11:00 Organizational Culture (Heath, Laura, Tina)
12:00 Lunch (not provided)
1:00 Developing Powerful Voices & Identities (Adeola Oredola)  
4:00 Break
4:30 Youth Voice Experiments (Laura) or Fundraising Overview (Heath, Tina)
5:30 Reflective Writing 

Sunday, June 3
9:00 Office Hours #3 (Tina, Laura, Heath)
10:00 Creative Placemaking/Placekeeping (Laura)
11:00 Aware Engagements and How to Measure Them (Heath)
12:00 Lunch (not provided)
1:00 Thinking about Sustainability (Heath, Tina, Laura)
2:00 Participant Sharing, Responses to Day Two & Day Three
3:00 Wrap Up & Next Steps

To learn more about Understanding El Sistema, visit #MusiciansAtWork at NEC's website.