A report by Ricardo Luque of SO DO – El Sistema Croatia
The Sistema effect
We are constantly aware of the fact that we live in a world driven by economic interests and the fever of consumerism. Therefore, it is very satisfying to see projects which are guided by philanthropy, goodwill and the desire to help children and young people in their search for a sense of meaning and fulfillment.
One way in which this can happen is through the inspiration provided by art and, undoubtedly, El Sistema is an artistic project which fulfills all of the noble sentiments expressed in the previous paragraph.
Since it first appeared in Venezuela in 1975, the Sistema concept has spread across the world, adapting to the circumstances of its new environments, no matter what the cultural identity of the country or region in which it finds itself.
In many cases, El Sistema has been a very powerful and effective tool in the fight against poverty and delinquency, but it can also be just as efficacious in the battle against spiritual poverty, social apathy and conformism. As we know from many reports into Sistema projects worldwide, the concept stimulates emotional intelligence, social sensibilities and social empathy.
El Sistema in Istria performing in Pula
Getting started
However, our experience in Croatia nonetheless revealed initial scepticism towards Sistema from many individuals and we heard comments such as: “We do not need this [El Sistema], we don’t have any gangs here”, “We [already] have excellent music schools here” and “Our children are so busy, they do not have the time for such activities”. These statements confirmed our suspicions that apathy, anxiousness and pessimism had all taken their toll on Croatian society since the war.
Yet, despite this initial scepticism, the El Sistema project in Croatia has been able to progressively consolidate itself and has now become accepted in the societies where it is active. This is even the case in regions which, at first glance, appear to enjoy a great deal of economic stability, such as Istria, where, with the help of the EU, we successfully completed the establishment of a Sistema project at the end of May last year.
Istria is a very beautiful, picturesque tourist region, with a long tradition of producing music schools, bands and artistic societies. Yet, despite its cultural richness, these artistic organisations are typically inward-looking and disconnected, which means that the results and the effects of their work are unable to spread throughout the whole region. Each individual group is in some way limited or confined to its own surroundings and is, as such, unable to attain the more universal results which would otherwise be possible.
With the support of EU funds, we, therefore, started an 18 month project to found two Sistema nucleos in Istria: one in the city of Pula (the biggest city in the region) and one in the city of Poreč (on the coast in the north west of the region). At first, we needed almost a year to prepare, to find partners, teachers and venues, and then we started with our rehearsals.
El Sistema in Istria performing in Pula
For the first couple of months of rehearsals, we organised separate sectional sessions, but then we decided to join the sections together into one orchestra of approximately 40 children of different ages and levels of experience and to practise alternately in Pula and Poreč.
It was, and still is, logistically challenging to get the children together, as they come from different parts of Istria, travelling distances of up to 50 kms to rehearsals without any reliable form of public transport. Yet, once we had organised a bus to transport the children, they actually developed far closer relationships with each other as they suddenly had the opportunity to talk to and to get to know each other better on their way to practice sessions.
In the course of the project, we also catered for the continued development of our teachers, personally providing them with several training sessions as well giving them the opportunity to attend three workshops with international, highly qualified and experienced musicians from Austria, Spain and Venezuela.
And, we ourselves were fortunate enough to enjoy the support of a steering group and the SO DO centre in Zagreb. Their backing enabled us to organise joint concerts in Pula and Poreč, showing the strength of El Sistema in performances in which more than 100 players were united on stage through the beauty of music (see video below).
The steering group was formed to ensure that we received support and its members helped us a lot with their experience and knowledge; skills which we are grateful to still be able to count on, even now that the project is over. In fact, when this specific project came to its end and the financial support from the EU ceased, we continued to work enthusiastically with all our friends and partners, in order to guarantee the further development of El Sistema throughout the whole Istrian region.
Moving forwards
The El Sistema project on the Istrian peninsula, specifically, in the cities of Pula and Poreč and with young people from throughout the region, has brought about the birth of what has the potential to be a catalyst for wide-reaching and positive change in the cultural geography and human development of the region.
As the project came to a close, we conducted several surveys amongst the parents, professors and students who had taken part in the El Sistema in Istria project and the results revealed high levels of acceptance, enthusiasm, goodwill and eagerness for keeping and further developing this El Sistema project.
This air of positivity came about quickly and arose within the first year of the El Sistema in Istria project, while we were able to develop our work with the support of the European Union's IPA 2012: Fostering Innovative forms of Philanthropy in Local Communities to Support Sustainability of Civil Society programme. Upon its successful completion, our financial support from the EU came to an end, yet we remain committed to our project and are searching for ways to ensure that we can continue to carry out our work in the region. El Sistema in Istria is still going strong and, moving forwards, we will look to appeal to the sensibilities and the entrepreneurial spirit of civil society, thereby, upholding, boosting and strengthening this fantastic project, which has shown that it can contribute to positive change and promote development within the whole Istrian region.
To watch El Sistema in Istria in action, click on the video below 👇.
El Sistema in Istria playing together with El Sistema Zagreb
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