The Promise of Music - Gustavo Dudamel
- A documentary by Enrique Sánchez Lansch
DG 073 4427

Release date August 2008

The Promise of Music is split into two parts. First is an enlightening film about the effects of the Venezuelan project, El Sistema, followed by a performance of Beethoven's Symphony no. 3 at the 2007 Bonn Beethoven Festival. El Sistema, created by José Antonio Abreu in 1975, allows children from all over Venezuela to get involved with music. The project gives children the opportunity to learn musical instruments through playing in an orchestra (missing out the years of individual lessons that children in the UK face before playing in a group). It was striking to see how young some of these children are (five or six years old) and also to see an orchestra made up of a mixture of young children, adolescents and young adults. There are two products of El Sistema which prove its worth: Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. This documentary gives us insight into just how powerful the foundation has become. Abreu’s vision was that El Sistema could become both a social and musical project, teaching children about friendship and sharing. This has undoubtedly worked; orchestra members state, “it taught us not to make judgements based on class or family”. Several players from the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra are interviewed throughout the film and what comes across is an achievement of which everyone is (rightly) proud. The orchestra as a group is clearly important to the musicians and they speak of their strong sense of belonging. Everyone refers to Abreu, who is still heavily involved in the project, with a huge amount of respect. The musicians seem to have a strong sense of responsibility towards giving something back to El Sistema. Many hope to teach music in Venezuela thus helping the next generation and keeping the foundation alive. The documentary comes to a close with a summary from Dudamel, “when every child has access to culture then the world will become a more sensitive, more mature place…and that’s what the world needs now: much more sensitivity”. The final musing has been left for us to answer: “if it’s possible in Venezuela…why not the rest of the world?”

Reviewed by Ruth Squire