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.

“Cuícas e pandeiros para Stokowski ouvir!”

Em 1940, no contexto da chamada Política da Boa Vizinhança, o regente Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) visitou alguns países da América do Sul em turnê com a All-American Youth Orchestra. Por meio da análise de fontes da imprensa e do acervo documental do Museu Villa-Lobos, o presente artigo pretende iluminar aspectos relacionados à gravação do disco Native Brazilian Music, que reuniu, sob a iniciativa de Stokowski, alguns expoentes da música popular do Rio de Janeiro – como Donga, Pixinguinha e João da Baiana. O trabalho discute o papel desempenhado por músicos na esfera diplomática e argumenta que um dos efeitos da Política da Boa Vizinhança foi criar um jogo especular no qual, apesar da pretensa unidade cultural do continente, a aproximação promoveu discussões sobre identidade nacional, diferença e resistência.

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.

Prudencio, Cergio (1955--)

Cergio Prudencio was a composer, director, researcher, and teacher. He studied Latin American Contemporary Music Courses at the Bolivian Catholic University and participated in the Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra. Prudencio studied under Carlos Rosso, Alberto Villalpando, Rubén Vartañán, Coriún Aharonian, and José Antonio Abreu. He also served as a resident composer in Australia (1996), Germany (2001), and Italy (2007), was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2008/9), and has received assignments from the Perth Festival (Australia, 1996), the Pro Helvetia Foundation (Switzerland, 1997), the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival (Germany, 1999), the TaG Ensemble (Switzerland, 2001), the Buenos Aires Contemporary Music Festival (2003), and the Klangspuren Festival (Austria, 2009). Prudencio’s music establishes a dialogue between Andean and European avant-garde traditions. In 1980, Prudencio cofounded and directed the Experimental Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments (OEIN): an ideological, musical, and pedagogical project that asserts the Aimara music tradition from the Bolivian Altiplano by means of a contemporary expression. OEIN’s program links local materials and forms to procedural techniques from avant-garde contemporary music. The OEIN has achieved wide international renown, performing in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, as well as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, and Korea.