Pianist claims Venezuela regime uses Sistema as cover for its crimes
NewsA letter from the international pianist Gabriela Montero:
Today, the Maduro criminal regime tries to claim yet another stolen election in my homeland of Venezuela, despite overwhelming evidence that they lost by large margins. They can make the claim because they own the electoral council. They also own El Sistema, and the children’s orchestra that will go on tour this week in the US – LA, New York, Tanglewood and Ravinia – will preach it’s familiar gospel, that “music transforms society”.
A regime that has destroyed our country and is stealing yet another election will send its most effective propaganda machine – children – to America’s most illustrious halls under Gustavo Dudamel’s baton, and no musician among my friends joins me to condemn it. Indeed, the largest and most reputed classical music agency in London, AskonasHolt, continues to represent and manage it.
In an age so concerned with social justice, how on earth can this invidious relationship continue without industry-wide, unequivocal condemnation? Please, fellow musicians, help me – as I have helped many of you in your various causes – to protest this massive injustice and to stop our classical music industry from laundering and profiting from my nation’s continuing, abject misery.
Political criminals should be clever: If they hide behind the right slogans they are safe. Maduro uses the kind of slogans much of thr western media like. It matters little if it has anything to do with reality. If a murderer calls himself a “freedom fighter”, a “progresive” or a “socialist” too many people assume he must be one of the good guys.
Ditto if murderers call themselves “nationalist” or “righteous” or any number of other epithets. You needn’t be so selective…
It’s been quite some time since I encountered anyone, leftists included, who think Maduro is one of the good guys.
It’s another example of how “revolutions” start out on the extreme left and end up on the extreme right………….
Ah yes, the old “he’s not a real communist” chestnut.
The reality, of course, is that we’ve seen variations of the same script play out time and time again for over a century on the left.
The right has nothing to do with Maduro. He’s all yours.
Nonsense. He might have been a communist once, but he’s a fascist now. QED.
“Left” and “right” are irrelevant terms when it comes to a totalitarian outlook. When I was a student, and more left than right in outlook, though I was always more of a moderate, freedom of speech is something the left would have gone to the wall for.
And yet all the young –and older — people who have embraced cancel culture are deemed to be of the left. I have never accepted that. It’s a new social algorithm, one that has adopted a culture of victimology, accusation and a demand for 100% adherence or else. There is nothing “leftist” about that.
What is so shocking to me is how easily, and insidiously, our institutions have accepted that this is the only way forward, and have apparently ceded notions like truth, history and even reality to these totalitarians. They are accommodating the dismantling of societies and nations that, however imperfect, existed and progressed — sometimes too slowly, but with a forward-looking vision.
I think Ms. Montero categorizing the use of El Sistema as “laundering” by the regime in Venezuela is spot on. Sadly, there are always willing abettors, regardless of moral obligations…or just plain dupes.
AskonasHolt, especially with its affiliation with the San Francisco Conservatory of music, should sever its ties with El Sistema and the propaganda machine of the Maduro government.
A true clueless armchair-expert comment.
El Sistema gives hope and meaning to many children in an otherwise sh*thole country.
Not everybody is as privileged as Mrs. Montero having wealthy parents and moving to the US as a child.
But for her own narcissistic gratification, she wants to take that last straw of hope also away from Venezuela‘s children. Bravo!
Moral obligations? What have you DONE lately, to fight evil and injustice in this world or in or around your home?
(no, posting on social media doesn‘t count.)
The orchestra in Auschwitz gave hope and meaning to the inmates, too.
For the longest time, I have refrained from answering any ad-hominem attacks on Slipped Disc, but when “Tamino”, hiding behind a pseudonym, dares to share falsehoods about where I come from and diminishes my difficult fight for my country, I have to set the record straight.
Let me be clear. I don’t come from wealth, and even if I did, would that be a crime? My childhood and life would have been much easier if I had, but that is not the case. In 1978, aged 8, my lower-middle class family made enormous efforts to leave Venezuela with a scholarship from the then democratic government. Four years later, the scholarship came to an end because of a huge financial downturn and the devaluation of our currency. I was 12 and my family could not afford to stay together. My father and little brother returned to Venezuela and I grew up without them. You refer to Venezuela as a s…hole country. It became hell when the same criminal structure that finances El Sistema came into power. I think this is now obvious. There is nothing more beautiful than watching a child develop through inspiration and beauty and, as an artist myself, it is something I advocate through my own mentorship program. And as to “what have you done”? To help fight for Venezuela? Just Google Montero/Chavez/Maduro and you’ll find hundreds of press articles since 2010, denouncing what we have are now seeing unravel. I knew my best contribution would be to use my music, platform and press to raise awareness and break the silence. If I were the narcissist you claim I am, I would not have wasted a moment of precious press coverage to speak about anything but my own career. I have exposed myself to countless attacks and vitriol for speaking out and I confess it has not been easy. My reward has been to receive the love and gratitude of Venezuelans all around the world for telling our story when very few would. It has hugely disappointed me to see how the music world has turned a blind eye to the the political exploitation of the same children you profess to care so much about. We Venezuelans are fighting to recover what remains of our mangled and abused country. We deserve better. Just as the children with their instruments deserve to be freed from the grip of the murderous regime that has stolen their present and their future. Now, if you want to continue to attack me personally, there is nothing I can do about that. I understand that is the price I have to pay when one leaves the comfort zone and becomes a human rights advocate, but I am speaking without hiding, while you hide behind your deeply ironic Mozartian moniker. You do know, do you not, that Tamino endured trials by silence, fire and water, and that he must fight for his state of grace?
I’ll tell you, Tamino, with my own testimony, that in 2018, thanks to Gabriela and her husband, I was able to leave Venezuela. They welcomed me into their home, they got me a full scholarship to Ireland to study for 2 years, they brought Dayana, who is now my wife as well, and she stayed at their house for 3 years as well. They helped me send medicine for my brother for a long time, who unfortunately passed away due to not having basic care in Venezuela.
Before me, she had also helped many musicians in the SISTEMA who were not helped by their own institution.
Don’t lie when you say that Gabriela is from rich parents and that’s how she was able to move to the United States.
Gabriela has been using her music as a protest against tyranny for more than a decade.
Have you asked Dudamel the same thing?
What has he done? How many musicians has he helped?
The SISTEMA is a propaganda weapon to clean up the image of the Narco-dictatorship , and they are accomplice too.
Luis Magallanes, Venezuelan Singer.
It’s such a good business exploiting kids. They don’t need fees, they can survive on cheap meals and inexpensive accommodation – Askonas and Dudamel must be very happy. Who the hell cares about promoting totalitarianism, when the country is sliding towards dictatorship anyway? Let’s make more money quickly. I bet anything that always progressive (blah, blah) Marin won’t say a word this time…
Artists have to stop being useful idiots for authoritarian left wing governments. It happened in Scotland, it’s happening in a far more dangerous way in Venezuela, it could happen anywhere. Why are they so easily led? Like donkeys.
Montero is right, and a principled cultural leader. Maduro has not only stolen an election, in the style of his good friend Putin, but he has done so while ditching a deal with the US that promised to allow the main opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, to run in exchange for lifting sanctions. Days later, he will laugh in the face of Americans as his musician soldiers play mambo to their unsearching delight, with Dudamel dutifully conducting. If ever you needed evidence that Dudamel plays both sides but remains firmly a Chavista, this is it. This is mockery of the highest order. Askonas Holt is morally bound to dump El Sistema as a client and publicly denounce this kind of cynical propaganda on the backs of kids. It’s a truly great agency and doesn’t need blood money on its books.
She will not get much invitations from New York….will she?
She really could not care less. That is what self-sacrifice is all about. This is about something far bigger than her, and she knows it.
88 keys but only one note out of this pianist.
I don’t know…it appears she hit quite a few.
“In an age so concerned with social justice, how on earth can this invidious relationship continue without industry-wide, unequivocal condemnation?”
Gosh, you answered your own question by using the word “industry”. And, what social justice? The industry is all about fun and money. At your age, you should have understood that. Likewise, that any protests or online condemnation are useless.
The LA Phil, Chicago, Tanglewood and Carnegie Hall are hosting El Sistema this very week. Are they really going to carry on as if nothing had happened? It would be the worst form of weak-willed complicity.
Systema gave Dudamel to the world, who couldn’t function without…so systema must be good.
I think your translator’s broken. Are you actually suggesting that the world can’t function without Dudamel? Has 0.01% of the world ever heard of Dudamel?
That was a sarcastic comment if ever there was one. At least I hope so.
Gabriela Montero is a heroine. She is not a virtue-signaling bandwagon rider like so many others.
LOL. She risks nothing. And has no empathy for the poor children of Venezuela. She left as a child, with wealthy parents. She does nothing that would deserve to be called „heroic“, only talks a lot.
Maybe you should ask your friends why they don’t support you. Perhaps it’s because, whilst it is a government backed group, at its heart El Sistema is a children’s orchestra and not a political mouthpiece for Maduro. What has, is and will happen in Venezuela should not distract from the incredible work these children are doing and the opportunity they have to perform. We should all be angry about what has happened, but to criticise El Sistema and by extension Askonas Holt is focusing on the wrong thing. Now, if Dudamel himself does not call out the actions of the Venezuela premier it’s a different story, but for now let us support the children who are all too aware of the situation and what they will return to.
You play right into the narrative of the Maduro regime, shielded by children. Sucker.
What a cynical and heartless comment. These children have the best experience being in El Sistema, and take that back to their country. A glimmer of hope.
Has it ever occured to you, that you are just LUCKY where you happen to live? It‘s not like you had to fight for your freedom and decadent morals…
So why not bring back Gergiev?? And have russian youth orchestras perform in Carnegie Hall? But let’s not support the children in the streets protesting? This regime stole the elections, are criminals as I am sure you are witnessing the news, and pays for both: The orchestra, and at the same time ordering the murders of the protesters(many of them students)
Quite frankly, I’m tired of this essentially making kids playing classical music collateral damage her political war.
And why is Dudamel silent about this? He is of course much nicer than Gergiev, but should he not be treated in a similar manner?
Yes why? He could just spit in the soup which brought him where he is, not mentioning his great curls, which work as good for him as Muti’s straight hair in his time…false values, confused times no wonder he’s on the top of the world..
Everybody shall bring his own house in order first. That‘s the only way the world can become a better place.
It does not make any sense that Gergiev is cancelled but a Venezuelan orchestra funded by this horrific regime performs under Dudamel’s baton in the United States. I don’t buy it’s for the kids, this same regime kills the ones protesting in the streets. Please. They are using this orchestra as propaganda.
You’d think one look at actual Venezuela would be enough to scotch the ‘music transforms society’ myth, wouldn’t you?
Ravinia must reject the political tool El Sistema appearance. Cancellation is the correct response. The Orchestra is being used as a political mouthpiece. Ravinia must now act with a rejection of the appearance.
Why doesn’t Dudamel speak out now? Perhaps because the children of the orchestra will have to return to Venezuela after their tour, and he is thinking of their safety. He condemned Maduro in 2017; since then the regime had appeared to be improving, but that has been called into doubt by the election results. Gabriela Montero can speak out because she has no responsibility for the youth orchestra. No doubt she would think it better that Dudamel should resign and the orchestra be disbanded. Would that bring Maduro’s regime to its knees?
Gabriela runs a mentorship program and is dedicated to education. She doesn’t want kids to lose access to music. Her point is that the kids should not be used by the regime to launder its image and promote the politics of “Revolution!” abroad, and the music industry should cease profiting from the message of “transformation” when sold by a criminal regime holding an entire country hostage to misery. Something like that. Seems rational to most.
I am aware of the good work that Montero does, and I understand the evil use the regime makes of the youth orchestra. My question stands: what is best for the children of the orchestra in the present moment, as they start their US tour? Dudamel has responsibilities to the musicians of the orchestra, Gabriela Montero does not.
Thanks Furtwangler.
Bravo, Gabriela!!!