October 20, 2008
CUNY Adopts Venezuelan Music Education Model for |
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| At a reception on Friday, October 17, the City University of New York celebrated the launch of the Harmony Program, a new after-school music education program that trains students and alumni of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music to teach instrumental music to second- and third-graders at P.S. 152. The model represents the first New York City–based effort to emulate the world-famous Venezuelan National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras (or “El Sistema”), which was founded by Maestro José Antonio Abreu in 1975 and has since trained nearly one million children—the vast majority from the country’s impoverished barrios—in classical music. The Harmony Program has selected and trained its teachers from among under-graduates, graduate students, and recent alumni of programs in music education and music performance at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. They will provide after-school music instruction Monday through Friday to forty-four children, who will also receive musical instruments, books, supplies, and cultural experiences, all entirely free of charge. Classes start at P.S. 152, 725 East 23 Street, Brooklyn, on Monday at 3 p.m.; children will receive their instruments after school on Tuesday. |
Borrowing from El Sistema, the program will provide children with daily instruction, quickly establish them in ensemble environments, and develop music theory and appreciation through performance. These principles emphasize both the benefits of socialization among one’s peers as well as an almost immediate discovery of the joys of making and sharing music. For more information, please visit: http://www.bcmusic.org/ |
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