…except for the overhead lights shining on our two laptops as we wrote as fast as we could, to capture the astonishing experiences we had just had in the Philippines…or Japan…or Brazil, or Vienna, or Istanbul. We knew we’d remember the overall sense of hope in bleak places, but we didn’t want to forget the vivid particularity of the details in each place.
In twenty-five countries, at over 100 program site observations, amid countless meals and meetings with program founders and teachers around the world, we delved into the unity and diversity of El Sistema-inspired programs. Our conclusions, along with many memorable stories, have formed our book Playing for Their Lives. But there were dozens of great stories and hundreds of pages that couldn’t fit in the book; there are people we want to introduce, ideas we haven’t yet shared, and a few just plain travel adventures. This blog, On the Sistema Road, gives us a place to share these.
Our blog posts will also include current reflections relevant to the Sistema-inspired movement in the U.S. and around the world. Subscribe to this blog, and each new post will be sent your way. Our post will be mostly (though we can’t promise all) short, and we hope they illuminating in some way about the growth of El Sistema-inspired work around the world. Come and hit the road with us.
—Tricia and Eric