Informal thoughts and outcomes of Sistema Europe meeting in Birmingham 17th April 2014
With her permission, I share this email from Malin Aghed of Sistema Sweden following a meeting of Sistema Europe colleagues who attended the ISM’s conference at Birmingham Conservatoire. It captures the optimism and passion that so many of us share and why we must fight together for the power of music to transform lives.
It might sound too bold to say it out loud. And someone might raise their hand and say that this has been done before. And maybe it's not making that huge kind of impact as one hoped for. Still, we say it, we do it, we keep hoping, working, struggling, crying, laughing. Off course it's bold to say that we make a difference. Of course it has been done before. Of course we won't reach World Peace just by giving some children a voice or an instrument.
But we certainly won't reach it if we don't even try.
So, the European network of the El Sistema movement is gathered in a room in Birmingham. The first Sistema Europe meeting was held in London less than two years ago, in June 2012, with seven countries represented and with Maestro Abreu attending. Today we are 14 European countries and we have visitors from the United States, Guatemala and Venezuela. Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia, , Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom including England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 30 persons all in all. 17 countries and 30 persons who all want to acknowledge the possibility of music transforming small worlds as well as big ones. That it can make a difference to individuals, to families and to the society, to quote Maestro Abreu.
And why do we do it? Because we can! And because we should! We might not succeed all the time, we might have hundreds of struggles and fights and issues that need our attention, but we are privileged enough to be able to rise up again and keep working. So, if we have an idea that we hope will work, we won't stop doing it out of fear, or out of laziness, or because someone thinks we're being too bold. We can do it. And we will.
The outcomes of today’s meeting in Birmingham are many, structural issues are beginning to get solved, old ideas are getting explained, new ideas are born, we talk about Music Camps and Teacher Training, people get to update one another on future events and co-operations of all sorts, we discuss e-learning and common websites, we focus on the children and the music and we focus on the teachers - but the outcome that really stays and that will make a difference for sure is (not surprising anyone by saying this, I know, but I want to say it anyhow) the personal encounters: to meet each other for real, to be in the same room. The fact that we are all humans, that we all want to do what's best for the kids, that we all try our best to leave our egos outside the building and that we are able to support each other instead of being envious of what other people might have managed to achieve.
We should never measure success in how many kids we have in the program. We should never measure success in how fast our kids can learn how to play ‘An die freude’. We should never measure success in how much money we managed to make, how many nucleos we have, how many people have come to visit, how big and eager the orchestra linked to the program is... What matters is how the kids are doing. How the teachers, the families, the musicians are doing. Music. Passion. Together. Heart.
Of course we don't agree on every matter, it's healthy to disagree, and we do. Luckily. That creates space for an even better idea to emerge, or space for reflection and conversations. Or just space. We all need some of that every once in a while. It's the space between the notes in a song that makes it a song and not just a sound.
The ideas growing in the different Sistema programs throughout Europe are many, and quite often good ideas rise simultaneously in different places, unaware of each other. Then, what we do is to seek cooperation instead of victory - or, as I'd rather put it: common victory by working together instead of working on our own in our own corner. To reach out to give - or take - a hand, instead of raising it to say "we had this idea first". Acknowledging that none of us had an idea first. Ever. The idea of music and the idea of a society where kids are free to reach their full potential can only be reinvented, in new ways, over and over again, but the idea itself is nobody’s private property. It belongs to everyone.
If we can continue knowing that, we will continue focusing on the children, and by that also continue our ongoing tribute to the heritage of Maestro Abreu and the hard work of the Venezuelans. To share, to help, to always stay not further than an email or a phone call away.
Thank you, Malin.