On An Overgrown Path

Today the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra hits the BBC Proms and 'miracle maestro' Gustavo Dudamel hits the media with the message "I think the most important thing is to make the music accessible... I think we have to make everyone understand that it's important to have a future for the people". There is no disputing that El Sistema does invaluable work making music accessible, as do several other lower profile music education programmes . But less publicised aspects of Hugo Chávez's petro-socialism musical sub-brand also deserve consideration. The BBC Proms appearance of the Venezuelan orchestra is one of just five concerts they are giving on their current overseas tour. Two of the concerts are at the Salzburg summer festival, which is probably the most expensive and least accessible music event in the world. Tour management is the responsibility of the orchestra's agent Askonas Holt , which also represents the miracle maestros's other bands, t...

Yesterday's Independent carried the gushing feature seen above written by Clemency Burton-Hill on location in Caracas with Gustavo Dudamel and laced with generous quotes from the president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms Burton-Hill is better known as a presenter on BBC Radio 3 and the Proms , and also of the current BBC Four Young Musician 2012 programmes . What the feature byline does not explain is that one of her other roles is writing promotional material for artist agent Askonas Holt. And it also does not tell readers of Askonas Holt's role in Gustavo Dudamel's forthcoming UK tour with the the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and in his past Los Angeles Philharmonic tours , all of which feature prominently in the Independent article. A search reveals no less than twenty-five contributions by Clemency Burton-Hill to the Askonas Holt website, while on the Dudamel/LA Phil tour page there is a glowing write-up by.... Clemency Burton-Hill. As t...

Elsewhere there is much well deserved praise for yesterday's Big Noise concert in Stirling featuring Gustavo Dudamel, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the young musicians from the Raploch estate, and anyone who knows that deprived neighbourhood will have been deeply moved by the impact that the Venezuelan music education movement is having there. Which still fails to explain why everyone connected with the event managed, once again , to ignore the large, dead and malodorous moose in the centre of the Raploch stage. El Sistema was founded by José Abreu in 1975, which is twenty-four years before Hugo Chávez became president of Venezuelan. But El Sistema and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (note the full title) have close links with Chávez, and, as  the New York Times reports , the Chávez administration funds almost all of El Sistema's $29 million annual budget. Funding that also pays for the prominent Venezuelan national colours worn around the mu...

Norman Lebrecht recently roared “Until bloggers deliver hard facts and estate agents turn into credible critics, paid-for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town ”. So on Friday it was good to see a paid-for newspaper setting the standard and covering the wonderful music education programme in Venezuela. In a major article that made the front page of the influential Film & Music supplement (above) Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins visits both Venzuela and Rome, and sings the praises of what she calls ‘The System’, or to give the Venzuelan education programme its full title Fundacion del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de las Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela . Also championing Venezuelan music education is Simon Rattle, who gushes euphorically in the article about wunderkind conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and declares "If anyone asks me where is something really important going on for the future of classical music, I say here....

That headline is, of course, fiction, and can you imagine the outcry if it was true? But the facts are equally alarming: Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Orchestra - classical music's social conscience - appeared on January 27th as part of the 2014 Abu Dhabi Festival in the United Arab Emirates, a region with a human rights record that makes contemporary Russia look like a liberal paradise. Article 80 of the Abu Dhabi Penal Code designates sodomy as punishable with imprisonment of up to 14 years, and in 2005 UAE justice minister Mohammed bin Nukhaira Al Dhahiri reportedly stated “There will be no room for homosexual and queer acts in the UAE... our society does not accept queer behaviour, either in word or in action”. The United States is this year’s “country of honor” at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Festival and joining Gustavo Dudamel in the United Arab Emirates's capital this year are Renée Fleming and the Dresden Philharmonic , Miloš Karadaglić ,  Vladimir Ashkenazy with Ga...

'An affront to human dignity is an affront to me; and to protest against injustice is a matter of conscience. Are human rights of less importance to an artist than to other men? Does being an artist exempt him from his obligations as a man? If anything, the artist has an even greater responsibility, because he has been granted special sensitivities and perceptions and because his voice may be heard when others may not. Who, indeed, should be more concerned than the artist about the defense of liberty and free inquiry? Such fundamentals are essential to his creativity' - Pau Casals had it right as did - dare I say it? - someone else . Book is Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema and the Transformative Power of Music by Tricia Tunstall. I haven't read it and don't intend to, but it makes an appropriate header graphic. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will b...

In a few days Google zeitgeist will be telling us what was hot and what was not in 2010. Google's entertaining Christmas PR exercise uses a tool called Google Trends which measures the number of web searches for a specified term. So, ' Twitter ' is hot: While ' Napster ' is not: Before proceeding further let us understand the ground rules. Goggle Trends is an automated tool and some of its limitations are explained in a footnote to this post. But at the best Google Trends provides food for thought and at worst offers a much needed alternative to the shockingly bad Christmas TV and radio schedules here in the UK. To play the what is hot classical music game simply go to the Google Trends homepage and type in your search term. And hey presto! If the trend is uphill it is hot, if it is downhill that says it all. Here are some examples for starters. Sadly, as measured by Google Trends, ' classical music ' is going downhill quickly: While, by contrast, ' An...

In 2007 I made a modest pilgrimage to the grave of Elizabeth Maconchy and wrote a tribute titled How important is a composer’s music? from which the photo above is taken. On An Overgrown Path was among the first blogs to draw attention to Elizabeth Maconchy's music, and over the years many other women composers have been featured here before their 'discovery' by the twittering classes. If today's post simply repeated my 2007 article it would undoubtedly generate a large readership: because Elizabeth Maconchy and her peers are currently enjoying the attention of classical music's monkey mind. Monkey mind is a Buddhist concept evoking capriciousness and inconstancy. Elizabeth Maconchy's music, like that of so many other musicians female and male, undoubtedly deserves attention and I commend it strongly to you, particularly her quartets . But what disturbs me is the damaging power of that monkey mind which flits capriciously from one next big thing to another -...

The Soviet Union spared no expense investing in the education of children, beginning at a very early age and continuing to early adulthood, in sports and in the arts, because success in these areas could be shown as propaganda to prove to the western world that the soviet system is superior. Although prior to World War II Latvia already had a very strong musical (and cultural) tradition, the system of Latvian music schools was strengthened and supported under Soviet rule. Nowadays, many Latvian families are still accustomed to sending their children to music schools at the end of their regular school day, it seems natural that from an early age children not only sing and play musical instruments, participating in choirs, bands, and orchestras, but they also receive training in solfeggio, music theory, and music literature, and this is an important component that is lacking in music education in most western European countries. That is the thought provoking explanation from the officia...