Emotional, cognitive, and motor development in youth orchestras

Does being part of an orchestra from an early age have an impact on cognitive and emotional capacities? Researchers from the University of Geneva (Unige), Switzerland, the University of Genoa (Unige-IT), and the Institute of Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music (IRCAM) in Paris investigated this question in the context of the Demos orchestras organized by the Philharmonie de Paris-Cité. This two-year study evaluated the development and evolution of the cognitive, emotional, and motor skills of 255 children engaged in two Demos orchestras, aged 7 to 13 years living in education priority zones (ZEPs) in France. The results showed that after two years of playing music as part of a group, the working memory, cognitive flexibility, and emotion understanding skills of the children improved at a higher rate than the published measurements on standard tests. Important improvements were also shown in movement synchronization.

NEOJIBA: art as a bridge to human development

An amazing story told through the details of the creation and implementation process of Program NEOJIBA – State Centers for Children and Youth Orchestras of Bahia. It takes the reader on a journey of individual and collective resilience with the purpose of fulfilling a dream: opening opportunities for social development and the common good through the teaching of classical music to less privileged communities.

Art Music as Universal Language: Youth Orchestras' Reactions to Social Conflict

This article identifies the role art music plays in orchestra projects that deal with social conflicts of youth populations. I argue that art music serves well in this context because it is a universal language that allows for an alternative method of communication and expression between the young musicians themselves and with others. I apply metaphysical explanations, studies from cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy of language in three specific youth orchestra contexts: the Retiro Youth Orchestra, El Sistema, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. These different lenses help uncover why and how art music positively impacts the development, both socially and personally, of young musicians in a healthier or alternative manner.

Playing the white man’s tune: inclusion in elite classical music education

This study examined the nature of inclusion for female and black and minority ethnic (BME) young people in elite-level classical music in England. By contrasting the numbers of female and BME students taking part in elite youth orchestras and music schools with the representation of female and BME compositions in the professional classical music repertoire, the study asked whether female and BME inclusion was limited to participation as performers or whether it included adequate representation in terms of the music performed. The survey analysed 4897 pieces from 681 composers drawn from the 2017/18 concert seasons of 10 major English orchestras, 1 week’s play lists from two classical music radio broadcasters and the programmes from the last four London Promenade seasons. The study found that female and BME students were well represented in elite music education, but they were very poorly represented in the professional repertoire, where 99% of performed pieces were by white composers and 98% by male composers. Applying Bourdieu’s concepts of doxa and illusio, the study concluded that inclusion in classical music in England allowed female and BME musicians to play, but structures in the field maintained a repertoire that continues to be white and male and does not recognise the contributions of female and BME composers. This suggests that inclusion for female and BME musicians is limited and the field continues to promote white and male dominance in its cultural values.

‘Sometimes I Feel Like I’m His Dog’

In a close analysis of rehearsal processes in the youth choir and two youth orchestras in this study, this chapter describes in detail the gendered interaction between conductor and musicians. The charismatic authoritative leadership of their male conductors was appreciated and enjoyed by the young musicians. The chapter focuses particularly on the interactions that facilitated this charismatic authority. To this end, the construction of conductors’ charisma is analysed in its workings through consensual as well as more coercive practices such as humiliation and fear, and the ways in which these reinforced gendered norms are drawn out. The deference and conformity that are normal within classical music practice can be read politically as trust in the authority and expertise of adult leaders that is continuous with a wider middle-class trust in institutional authority. These social relations are, in part, inscribed in the musical text.

An Analysis of the Repertoire Performed by Youth Orchestras in the United States

The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of repertoire performed by youth orchestras in the United States. Through an online survey, youth orchestra administrators ( N = 39) provided information about repertoire performed by their program’s premier orchestra during their 2015-2016 season. Orchestras performed 302 different pieces of music by 158 different composers. The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, Carmen Suite No. 1 by Georges Bizet, and Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture by Mikhail Glinka were performed most frequently. Approximately three quarters of all compositions were written after 1850, and only 7.14% were composed after 2000. Compositions by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Brahms were the most frequently performed, and female composers only wrote 0.78% of the repertoire performed by youth orchestras during their 2015-2016 season. Conductors should use these findings as an impetus to identify culturally diverse repertoire appropriate for youth orchestras by non-male composers.

Classical Music as an Instrument to Foster Leadership Skills for Social Change: The Case of Venezuela’s El Sistema

<em>El Sistema</em>, the Venezuelan system of youth orchestras, is a program aimed at teaching and performing classical music through the development of a free network of symphony orchestras and choruses nationwide. Since its creation in 1975 by its founder José Antonio Abreu, <em>El Sistema</em> has given thousands of Venezuelan children, who often come from unprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds, the opportunity to receive free classical music education while promoting their personal, intellectual, spiritual, social, and professional development. The purpose of this article is to analyze <em>El Sistema</em>’s potential to foster leadership skills for social change. After providing an overview of the program, we will apply Astin & Astin’s social change model of leadership development to shed light on <em>El Sistema</em>’s capacity to foster leadership skills for social change among its young musicians.

The Story of Carora: The Origins of El Sistema

Venezuela’s youth symphony program, the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar, commonly referred to as “El Sistema,” combines musical achievement with learning important life skills through orchestral practice and performance. Although the history most commonly reported outside Venezuela is of the program’s director, José Antonio Abreu, hosting a rehearsal of music students in a Caracan parking lot in 1975, El Sistema’s origins are equally owed to another orchestra. That same year, arts advocate Juan Martínez founded Venezuela’s first children’s orchestra in the Venezuelan city of Carora alongside three Chileans who previously taught for a similar program in Chile. I show that the two orchestras were frequent collaborators in the 1975–1977 period, a relationship that was essential in securing government and public support for the nascent Venezuelan program. I combine oral history and historiography to detail how the project in Carora began, define its relationship with Abreu’s orchestra in Caracas, and describe its pedagogy, philosophy, and funding. Beyond illuminating a historical narrative that highlights the importance of both national and international cooperation in the development of youth orchestras in Venezuela, this research has broad implications for advocacy and development of musical programs, within and outside schools.