News
The music program for kids looks to expansion in the future
MARY FAHEY TIMES & TRANSCRIPT 5-June-2015
Sistema NB has come a long way since its inception six years ago.
When Ken MacLeod started the program as a pilot project of the popular “El Sistema” program from Venezuela. In that first year, they had one teacher and 50 students.
“Now we have almost 600 children in the program every day,” said MacLeod. “It’s really been quite a success story for New Brunswick.”
The program has four centres across the province – Moncton, Saint John, Richibucto and Tobique First Nation – where children go after school to find inspiration through music. The children come to practise in an orchestra three hours a day, five days a week. The concept behind the program was to lead kids, often from underprivileged backgrounds, to change their lives through music, but MacLeod said they’ve also developed an impressive body of talented emerging artists along the way.
“After six years, what we’re able to say is that we’ve proven the concept of social change and social development for kids through music and through the orchestra,” he said.“We’ve seen improved attendance at school, improved behavior , improved academic performance.”
And now that the Sistema program has earned its stripes in New Brunswick – and Canada as a whole; MacLeod said there’s no program quite like this in the country – their next step is to continue growing outward and offering opportunities to as many kids as they can. They want to open a new centre somewhere in the province every year for the next four years.
“It’s ambitious,” said MacLeod. “Our plan now is having proven the concept, we want to bring this experience to more children in New Brunswick.”
Antonio Delgado is the music director and conductor for Sistema. He said the program is bringing in more talented teachers all the time, and now they have around 40. This year is the first for Tutta Musica, an orchestra made up entirely of the teachers from the program. The kids in the program will also have a chance to see the YOA Orchestra of the Americas this summer. This orchestra is made up of youth from more than 25 different countries, and they’re coming to Moncton for a couple weeks on July 10.
“This is very cool because we’re talking about a lot of great music teachers, soloists and conductors will be here with that orchestra,”said Delgado.“Our kids will have a chance to be exposed to that.”
Delgado also wants to expand Sistema as much as possible. He said they’re still deciding on which communities they want to set up camp, but another centre will be opening in Edmundston in the fall. The community is Edmundston is already prepared to do what they can to bring the program to their kids.
“I’m happy about how the program is going. Of course you always want more,” said Delgado.“At the same time, I’m excited for the results and excited about the expansion of the plans.”
Even though the program already has 600 kids and 40 teachers, MacLeod wants to grow those numbers to 1,000 to 1,200 students and 60 to 65 teachers by 2018-2019.
Some of Sistema’s goals which Mac-Leod feels they’ve accomplished are bringing the program to rural and urban areas, offering it in both official languages and setting up a centre in a First Nations reserve. With all those now checked off the list, MacLeod said they’re always going to look for ways to make music as accessible as possible for the kids who need it.
“It’s gratifying to look back and see that all of that has been accomplished in six years.”
The Sistema program is having its year-end concert next Tuesday at the Moncton Wesleyan Celebration Centre at 7 p.m. This event will give more than 200 kids in the sistema orchestras a chance to perform. Tutta Musica is having a“Fiddling Stars”show this Sunday at the Capitol Theatre at 2 p.m. The year-end concert is free to attend, and tickets for the Tutta Musica show are available for $23 to $31.50 at the Capitol Theatre box office or online at capitol.nb.ca.
