Kids Music in Medellin ... Great Systema!

There are 27 secondary music schools in Medellin, high schools devoted to music and the performing arts. They are connected in what they call the Network.(La Red). Members of the network share players and performances and dates of concerts and venues with each other.

 Many of the schools teach "The System" which started in Venezuela and was made world famous by Gustavo Dudamel and his national orchestras for youth starting with kids in the poorest barrios being given instruments and instruction. 

I attended a band concert last weekend in a shopping mall. There were three hundred seated in the audience and about that many standees. The kids in a band of twenty played intensely and in tune and many were given opportunities to solo. It was wonderful!

I missed the junior chorus concert which featured kids and their parents performing choral works together.  I'll try not to miss the next one!!!