Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music

by Tricia Tunstall

Overview

“Reminds us of how arts education can change lives.” —Gary Stager, Huffington Post

In this “vivid story” (Economist), Tricia Tunstall “chronicles the origins and growth of Venezuela’s acclaimed El Sistema national music education program” (Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times) and illustrates its overarching goal: to rescue children from the depredations of poverty through music. What began in Venezuela has extended to Los Angeles, New York City, and Baltimore, illustrating that El Sistema is not just a program, it’s a movement. Combining firsthand interviews with compelling stories, Changing Lives reveals that arts education can indeed effect positive social change in the United States and around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393344264
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/04/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tricia Tunstall is the author of Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music and Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson. A leading advocate for the importance of music education in children’s development, she consults with El Sistema programs in the United States and internationally.

Table of Contents

Prelude: Gustavo and Me ix

Chapter 1 Bienvenido Gustavo!: Hollywood's Unlikely New Star 1

Chapter 2 "Mambo!": A First Glimpse of El Sistema 26

Chapter 3 To Play and to Struggle: The Evolution of El Sistema 52

Chapter 4 Dancing with Cellos: The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela 97

Chapter 5 An Idea Worth Spreading 129

Chapter 6 "Being, Not Yet Being": El Sistema in Action 154

Chapter 7 Faces of El Sistema USA 213

Chapter 8 Gracias Gustavo; Healing Communities in Los Angeles 246

CODA: Loving Needy Children Well 269

Acknowledgments 275

Index 279

What People are Saying About This

Quincy Jones

Essential reading for every one of us who cares passionately about our neediest children.

Editorial Reviews

Essential reading for every one of us who cares passionately about our neediest children.

Quincy Jones

We are fortunate to have the story of El Sistema related so eloquently.

Deborah Borda

The story of "El Sistema, an extraordinary program for children and youth in Venezuela, where music education and social reform have been fused on a national scale with astonishing results." Music educator Tunstall (Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson, 2008) traveled to South America, California and elsewhere to explore the El Sistema's global groundswell. Founded in 1975 by pianist José Antonio Abreu, the movement, which currently serves nearly 300,000 underprivileged children throughout Venezuela alone, seeks to develop civic engagement and social responsibility by engaging youth with the rigors of the musical discipline and the interpersonal dynamics of playing in an instrumental ensemble. El Sistema has been profoundly successful, earning massive government support in Venezuela and spawning dozens of offshoots throughout the world, including the United States. Having produced arguably the most celebrated conductor today, 30-year-old Gustavo Dudamel, the program has become the most symbolic example of the social relevance that classical music can have in today's cultural landscape. Tunstall soundly probes how it is that classical music has played such a powerful role in the protection, education and elevation of so many children born into poverty. The author does a noble job tracing the history of El Sistema, while managing to keep the narrative as much in the immediate present as possible. Occasionally, Tunstall's otherwise enjoyable and sincere narrative becomes infected with the hyperbole endemic to classical music culture. Transformation, intellectual awe and spiritual uplift are notions that have always coded classical music with elitism while masking its deep anxiety over its own relevancy. Yet the author does readers a service by drawing attention to the group energy, individual artistry and organizational power that the social structures of classical music require. Tunstall is at times flatly earnest, even sappy, but never at the expense of conveying what is truly inspiring about her subject.

Kirkus Reviews