Abstract:
This thesis analyses El Sistema or La Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar (FMSB) and the nature of its cultural impact on Venezuelan society and internationally. Although there is a plethora of research that concentrates on its social impact, there is a lack of scholarly work focusing on El Sistema’s enormous cultural imprint. This is because most research look at the social, political, cultural and economic aspects in isolation rather than functioning in an intertwined manner. These are the areas that in Venezuela were of primary concern, which led Maestro Abreu to emphasise the social vision he had for the project over the cultural orientation of the program. This thesis answers various questions, such as: why is Venezuela using classical music to reach excluded social groups? How has it managed to sustain continuous funding throughout seven continuous governments that have spanned over 44 years? To answer these questions, El Sistema program is looked at alongside the Nueva Canción movement, the Theology of Liberation and the critical pedagogy teachings from Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, which emerged in the years prior to the El Sistema program. They can be said to have played a large influential role in the orientation that Maestro Abreu took with the program and in his own life. Finally this thesis investigates the claims that El Sistema is a revolution. Therefore, part of the thesis explores the revolutionary elements of El Sistema in contrast to the Cultural Revolution of China to decide whether or not it merits being categorized as such. The role of culture in society has played a vital but often undermined role and El Sistema is reinvigorating the place of culture by using classical music not as a form of domination and exclusion (as it was previously used for) but as a tool of resistance and inclusion.