In 1977, conductor, cellist, and educator Mark Churchill, having completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at New England Conservatory, is getting to know the world of music below the equator as artist-in-residence at a university in Brazil, later returning on a Fulbright grant to conduct doctoral research on Brazilian chamber music.
Fast-forward to 1993: Churchill has been NEC's Dean of Preparatory and Continuing Education for more than a decade, has learned about the effectiveness of international youth orchestras to promote cross-cultural understanding as founding Resident Conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra, and has found a way to combine his passions for youth education and Latin America with a concert tour of Chile by NEC’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. This sets off a succession of Latin American tours by the YPO that included Venezuela in 2001 and 2005.
At about the time Churchill makes his first trip to Brazil, another music educator and conductor, José Antonio Abreu ’02 hon. D.M., is bringing youngsters into a garage in Caracas, Venezuela, to expose them to the rigors of instrumental training and lure them away from the distractions of crime and poverty. By the time Abreu and Churchill first meet in 2000 to plan the founding of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Abreu has built El Sistema—his national system of orchestral training—to an impressive level of accomplishment. On the 2001 YPO tour, NEC students see how this system has brought energy and focus to a nation’s youth, and perform alongside many of the current members of today’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.
While the YPO tours continue, NEC stays close to Latin America in other ways, as outlined here. During this time, many NEC faculty members, students, and alumni also represent NEC as they teach, conduct, and perform throughout the region.
1994
NEC presents a schoolwide festival of Latin American music.
2001
NEC invites Cuban classical and popular musicians from that summer’s YPO tour to a weekend of joint musical activities at NEC.
2002
Following a decade of planning, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas is auditioned, and embarks on a three-week tour of the Americas in its debut season, with NEC as a founding partner, Jordan Hall as its point of rehearsal and departure, and NEC students among the orchestra members.
2003
Pianist Danilo Pérez, of the NEC jazz faculty, creates the Panama Jazz Festival in his native country, which previously named him Cultural Ambassador. Pérez starts bringing NEC students and faculty to perform at the festival, which becomes a center for student recruitment.
2005
NEC signs a friendship agreement with the newly launched Inter-American Center for Social Action Through Music, an international center for El Sistema’s educational mission.
2007
NEC presents the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela's sold-out performance in Symphony Hall, as part of a Boston residency during the orchestra's North American tour that includes collaborative activities with NEC students and faculty and an orchestral reading session with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the NEC Symphony Orchestra.
2008
NEC President Tony Woodcock leads a study group of Boston education, government, and arts leaders to Caracas in June to identify which elements of El Sistema might be replicable in Boston and the United States. While Woodcock is in Venezuela, he and José Antonio Abreu renew the 2005 friendship agreement, and Abreu challenges NEC to lead the effort to develop an El Sistema movement in the U.S.
In November, the Quincy Jones Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health honor José Antonio Abreu and Gustavo Dudamel with the Q Prize for “extraordinary leadership and advocacy on behalf of children.” At the prize ceremony, NEC President Tony Woodcock announces NEC's intention to spearhead El Sistema/USA and El Sistema/Boston programs.
Also in November, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, on its second concert tour outside the Americas, appears at the Vatican as part of the seventh annual Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra, performing under the direction of Helmuth Rilling as part of the liturgy of the Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica. At this point in its history, the YOA has performed more than one hundred concerts in Latin America and at such North American venues as Carnegie Hall and the United Nations. For this Rome trip, 22 NEC students participate as members of the orchestra.
2009
In February, when Dr. Abreu is awarded the TED Prize, along with the opportunity to make “One Wish to Change to World,” he asks the influential business leaders and thinkers present at the award presentation to support the creation of an El Sistema/USA program centered at NEC.
In October, the first class of NEC's Abreu Fellows arrives in Boston to begin their participation in this new program.
2010-02-09
CHARLES IVES