Glenn Gould Prize Turns Into Free Symphony Concert With 250 School Kids

10/30/09 4:21pm

by Siobhan Ozege (CHARTattack)

TORONTO — Access to arts funding has been a touchy subject in Canada for the past five years. It's becoming increasingly difficult to be an artist of any kind in Canada with record cutbacks to cultural programming.

It's no secret that Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn't the biggest advocate for music education or funding. That said, he has recently tried to better his image by mentioning how much he digs The Rural Alberta Advantage and by performing a Beatles song in public (at a gala, ironically) earlier this month, proving his obvious love of all things cultural.

Sarcasm aside, the past week in Toronto has seen some programming that has provided audiences with concrete proof that an education and investment in the arts is valuable, and that funding can come from a government, no matter how deficit-ridden it claims to be. If Venezuela can do it, I think it's safe to say we can, too.

This week, the Glenn Gould Foundation awarded its $50,000 prize to Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu and his protégé, Gustavo Dudamel. The pair are being recognized for their development and implementation of an education program called El Sistema, a system of free music education and youth orchestras created in 1975 by Abreu.

This after-school program has become so successful that it's serving children in 20 different countries, with 270 music centres, 55 children's orchestras and 102 youth orchestras. The best part of this program is it's proudly funded in part by the Venezuelan government, and has become so successful that the Simon Bolivar Orchestra (comprised of musicians aged 12 to 32) has been ranked as one of the top five orchestras in the world.

To show the power of his program, Abreu agreed to accept the award on the condition of bringing his 250-member orchestra with him, and that the money would be used to purchase new instruments for the orchestra.

He got one better: hearing the news, Yamaha chipped in with an additional $100,000 in instruments, and they were given four days of musical programming in the city of Toronto.

The week culminated on Wednesday (Oct. 28) with a free concert at the Rogers Centre for 14,000 Ontario schoolchildren. The event was conducted by some of the orchestra's young members, demonstrating that a musical education from an early age and a commitment to the arts can pay off in spades.

Seeing the Rogers Centre done up to accommodate schoolchildren for a classical music concert was impressive, and has hopefully sparked interest in renewing debate around the merits of the arts in our school systems.

Consider yourself 1-uped, Harper. These guys have got their game faces on.