Sage Gateshead - Santa Marcelina Exchange

Sage Gateshead – Santa Marcelina Exchange Year One Report

Foreword When Santa Marcelina Cultura started designing the socio-pedagogical plan for the Guri Programme in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo, back in early 2008, we believed that in order to reach excellence in music education and a true social transformation, we needed not only time, devoted dedication and courage to face the challenge of serving thousands of students, but we also needed to look beyond our borders. It did not last too long until we first met our friends from Sage Gateshead, with whom there was an instant connection, as we quickly realised our common values and vision.

Today we celebrate the results of the first of four years of intense cooperation between our institutions, with mutual learning experiences that transcend our music making through group singing, unfolding new perspectives – social, pedagogical and institutional - for the years to come.

This partnership has shown us that the power of exchanging knowledge between different cultures, foreseen by our founder almost 200 years ago, is still accurate these days.

On behalf of all us at Santa Marcelina Cultura - students, teachers and staff -, we would like to thank Sage Gateshead for their generosity and openness, the British Council and the São Paulo State Secretariat of Culture for believing and supporting this programme. May it be only the beginning of these everlasting bonds between São Paulo and Newcastle-Gateshead!

Sister Rosane Ghedin President Director, Santa Marcelina Cultura Paulo Zuben, Artistic-Pedagogical Director, Santa Marcelina Cultura All of us in Sage Gateshead are thrilled and proud to have established this remarkable mutual learning partnership in one of the world’s most exciting cities. In Santa Marcelina Cultura we’ve found an inspirational partner with whom we find we share fundamental values and principles and common social and musical goals. The British Council’s generous support is allowing us to work together at a really meaningful level, going beyond a surface exchange of views into a rich dialogue of shared investigation of important questions and active practice connections. In turn, that’s giving us real insight into Brazilian music education and social pedagogy of direct relevance to our own situation. After just the first of four years we can already see real impacts on our delivery of our own programmes and on our approach to planning and strategy. This profound ocean of learning is grounded in something even more precious – an intense friendship, respect and support between colleagues and institutions permeating the whole programme, and a learning experience which is truly unique and profound for us all.

Anthony Sargent General Director, Sage Gateshead

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Background to this exchange Sage Gateshead and Santa Marcelina Cultura have been developing the vision for a long-term exchange and knowledge transfer programme focusing on inclusion and excellence in music education since August 2010, and are delighted to have secured the partnership and support of British Council in 2012 through the TRANSFORM programme.

Our shared objectives through this knowledge transfer project are: • Each to develop our own programme delivery in order to improve outcomes for our participants • Establishment of long-term learning relationships between professional music educators, arts managers, researchers and social partners in our two countries • Generation of research and other materials for wider benefit Content of the project focuses on: • Social pedagogy exemplified in the work of Santa Marcelina Cultura within Guri Santa Marcelina • Vocal and choral practice exemplified in the work of Sage Gateshead • Ensemble instrumental learning in folk and orchestral instruments exemplified in both organisations • Progression routes for students and how to embed and sustain them • Professional development for teachers Specific actions include: • Structured professional development enabling colleagues in our organisations to benefit from each other’s distinct specialist expertise through the exchange of staff and the delivery of training days, workshops, master-classes and seminars • Creative activities and performances involving children and young people • Shared investigation of specific questions of mutual concern and the joint authorships of papers and reports for wider consumption and benefit • Presentation of public seminars and publication of materials • Creation of an on-line environment to deepen and develop partnership and share knowledge The exchange programme is supported through British Council Transform, an arts and creativity programme running from 2012 - 2016, aiming to develop the artistic dialogue between the UK and Brazil for mutual benefit and long term impact. Transform enables artists and professionals from the arts sector in both countries to share experiences and collaborate to bring about significant creative and social change for institutions, individuals and communities.

Who we are Santa Marcelina Cultura (SMC) Santa Marcelina Cultura manages São Paulo State Government’s music education and cultural inclusion project – Projeto Guri – in the São Paulo City Metropolitan Area. Projeto Guri is an 18 year old programme that runs all over the State of São Paulo and SMC has been managing the Greater São Paulo part since 2008. Currently, this part under SMC management provides music education and social-cultural inclusion for 13,000 children and adolescents in 46 learning centres. Santa Marcelina Cultura’s mission for Projeto Guri is to promote social and personal development, while cultivating respect, solidarity, sensitivity to diversity and consciousness in the appropriation of Brazilian and world’s history and cultures; and has among its targets to value, through music teaching and social intervention, the life of children and adolescents of Greater São Paulo, and their families. SMC intends to enable these young people, primarily from underprivileged areas of São Paulo City to open their horizons, learn about their rights, discover opportunities and change their lives through music. SMC also manages the State of São Paulo’s School of Music (Escola de Música do Estado de São Paulo – EMESP). Santa Marcelina Cultura is run by

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the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Marcelina (founded in Italy in 1838) in Brazil (since 1912). The Congregation runs other educational actions in Brazil, such as primary, secondary and higher education institutes and has also a strong branch in public health management – it manages four hospitals in Greater São Paulo. Guri Santa Marcelina (GSM) is the name we will use to specifically reference the Projeto Guri part that is managed by Santa Marcelina Cultura.

Sage Gateshead (SG) Sage Gateshead is an international centre for music and musical discovery based in an iconic Norman Foster building in Gateshead, in the North East of England. The organisation takes an integrated approach to creating and delivering a year round artistic programme of learning, training, participation and performance. It presents around 450 concerts per year across all genres of music in its three halls, including by Royal Northern Sinfonia, Sage Gateshead’s orchestra. The extensive Learning & Participation (L&P) programme enables people of all ages and abilities to become actively involved in music, encompassing under 5s and families, school age children and young people, further and higher education students, adult learners, older people, professional musicians and music educators, and including two undergraduate degree programmes - B.A. Community Music and B.Mus (Jazz, popular and commercial music) – delivered in partnership with University of Sunderland. The L&P programme is underpinned by four core values: quality, inclusivity, progression and innovation, and has professional learning for Sage Gateshead and partner staff threaded throughout to ensure sustainability and innovation. In addition to activity in the building, 65% of the programme takes place across all 10,000 square miles of the region, creating over 100,000 participation opportunities per year. The organisation was one of three partners that created and delivered Sing Up, England’s national singing programme for primary schools, having an impact on 18,000 schools between 2007 and 2012, and has now set up Sing Up Ltd in partnership with Youth Music to continue that work.

Year one September 2012 to May 2013 Two trips took place during this year. Sage Gateshead colleagues went to São Paulo in Sept/Oct 2012, and São Paulo colleagues returned to Sage Gateshead in May 2013.

Musicians from both organisations involved kept reflective diaries structured around specific questions to record their experiences, observations, emerging themes and points for further enquiry as the visit progressed. These questions encouraged thinking about inspirational practice, challenges experienced, emerging questions, surprises and the personal and organisational learning occurring during each day of each visit.

Both legs of the exchange were also thoroughly documented by both teams in the form of photographic and video recordings. These diaries and additional qualitative data have been catalogued and collated by both organisations in order that the prevalent and recurrent themes and learning contained and now identified within the data can be further investigated and discussed to the benefit of both organisations, their teachers and learners as this exchange partnership develops.

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Overview summaries São Paolo 2012 The first leg took place in São Paulo between September 20th and October 5th 2012 and involved four of Sage Gateshead’s leading music educators alongside the Director of Learning & Participation, Katherine Zeserson (who came for the second week). The musicians are members of Sage Gateshead’s Ensemble, a group of expert practitioners who are responsible for development of quality and practice across Sage Gateshead’s extensive Learning and Participation programme. They all work in community and education settings, as well as being professional performers in their own right. They are Kathryn Davidson - Folk Strand Leader, specialising folk and traditional song (solo and ensemble) and tin whistle (traditional UK instrument); Sharon Durant – Vocal Strand Leader, specialising in vocal / choral practice and technique across genres; Rob Kitchen – Percussion Strand Leader, specialising in creative musicianship (including devising, composing and improvising) and percussion; and Julia Partington – Early Years Strand Leader, specialising in singing and musicianship with pre-school children and families.

These four musicians were selected in response to the joint (SG/SMC) identification of areas of practice potential areas for collaborative development across both partner organisations. They all hold combined practice based and managerial positions within Sage Gateshead, being responsible for their particular strand of music education practice and also for teams of music educators within those strands. Their positions ensured that the learning from their involvement in this phase of the exchange could be effectively cascaded and disseminated through Sage Gateshead’s wider body of music educators. As well as over-seeing Sage Gateshead’s extensive Learning and Participation programme, Katherine Zeserson is a vocal/choral specialist.

The core areas of practice and connection included: • Vocal and choral practice - which is recognised by both organisations as an important vehicle for social integration and musical development • Social pedagogy • Ensemble instrumental learning • Folk and traditional music • Early years music practice • Approaches to leadership and management During their sixteen-day visit, the Sage Gateshead musicians worked intensively with young people across the city of São Paulo in six SMC music schools, also referred to as poles. Here they worked alongside many of Guri’s dedicated team of music educators and social pedagogues leading master-classes and workshops for hundreds of students and over thirty music teachers. The SG musicians led activities and contributed to classes daily across the wide range of programme offered by GSM, from music initiation for the very youngest children to vocal and instrumental groups of varying size. These contributions included sharing

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traditional repertoire from the United Kingdom and work on vocal/instrumental technique along with modeling of particular pedagogical approaches such as Sage Gateshead’s Early Years pedagogy. This modeling and sharing was combined with periods of shadowing GSM music teachers to observe teaching and learning in the GSM and Brazilian contexts. This stimulated reflection and discussion about similarities, differences and areas for joint development between the two organisations.

The first week culminated in the SMC and SG musicians co-leading an exuberant and moving large scale singing event for all SMC choirs (children, youth and parent choirs) at Grand Theatre Otelo within which the SG musicians also performed as a vocal ensemble. The second week included an intensive training programme for SMC teachers which included teacher-only sessions on creativity and improvisation in within vocal / choral teaching, as well as masterclass workshops in which SG musicians led activities with young people whilst being observed by SMC teachers.

During their stay, the SG musicians also experienced live traditional Brazilian music through attending traditional community music events such as Samba de Vela and participating in SMC led Bumba Meu Boi workshops; experienced the art of fuxico, a traditional Brazilian handicraft under the expert tuition of a group of mothers of young people participating in the SMC programme at Jambeiro pole, and visited cultural venues within the city of São Paulo such as Sala de São Paulo.

Gateshead 2013 During 11 to 26th May 2013, Sage Gateshead welcomed eight Santa Marcelina Cultura representatives: Giuliana Frozoni – Guri Santa Marcelina Pedagogical Manager, Maurício Cruz – Santa Marcelina Cultura External Relations Coordinator, Marta Bruno – Guri Santa Marcelina Social Coordinator and social pedagogy specialist and choral/voice teaching specialists Rodolfo Jonasson and Paulo Bezulle(pedagogical supervisors); traditional Brazilian music specialists Cláudia Oliveira (percussion teacher) and Fabiana Almeida (collaborative pianist/traditional music teacher); and musicianship specialist Gabriela Masotti (choir/musicianship teacher).

During their stay, SMC’s team talked and participated in seminars; led workshops with students, teachers and partners; observed and assisted Sage Gateshead’s colleagues in music classes, musicianship sessions and group rehearsals; visited accessibility projects, social projects and professional development programmes; taught and performed Brazilian music at classes and events; attended musical performances at Sage Gateshead; and, in addition, met England’s northeast traditions like folk music gatherings, sword dancing and ceilidh dancing. These activities took place in Gateshead and other communities in the region and the SMC team interacted with approximately 1218 participants of various ages, working directly with 419 of those participants and working alongside 42 music leaders from Sage Gateshead.

From what the SMC team experienced and observed, Sage Gateshead weaves a complex network of

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music activities. On the day after their arrival in Gateshead, SMC’s team benefited from observing SG’s choir leaders leading a boys’ choir, girls’ choir, female vocal quartet and youth choir, and led warm-ups for these groups when invited. These choirs meet on a project basis (with pre-fixed schedules of rehearsals and performances; when this schedule is over, the project is over and a new one is begun) and its members are auditioned.

SMC’s team also attended and led warm-ups in the Chamber Choir, a non-professional adult group that sight-reads music with ease and is able to sing complex repertoire. It is of particular note that two young local composers were commissioned to write musical pieces inspired

by Northeast folklore for SG’s main choirs. The composers attended to the first reading of their pieces in each choir.

Subsequently, SMC’s team participated in the Community Music Symposium (part of the SG based Everyone Deserves Music festival) in which the Guri Santa Marcelina pedagogical manager and SMC external relations coordinator took part in a round table on international perspectives regarding community music. Later the same day SMC’s team led a workshop on Brazilian rhythm baião to some of the symposium participants and some days later SMC’s team led another workshop on a northern Brazilian folk festivity, Bumba meu boi, including the making of the bull character and making a procession through the Sage Gateshead building, dancing, playing and singing.

During both weeks, SMC’s team observed SG colleagues deliver music classes and when possible led activities and taught Brazilian songs, rhythms and dance steps. These classes encompassed a wide range of formats and ages. Some classes were part of SG’s own music programmes, while a significant number of the classes were at schools that hire SG to provide music-teaching services. Among the latter, some were weekly choir classes, some weekly musicianship classes and other project oriented classes (a set of music classes plus teacher training and material with a specific performance in mind). In the view of the SMC team, Sage Gateshead has a combination of welltrained professionals, standard class formats and music publications that are used to tailor services for many different music teaching needs.

One such project was a two-week set of steel pan classes that concluded with a steel pan concert, where students, teachers and mothers performed. SMC’s team performed Brazilian songs at the opening of this event. The SMC team also had the opportunity to exchange experience with music teachers working on “In Harmony”, an SG-led orchestra-building programme based in an inner-city primary school inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema.

To better understand SG’s wide coverage of musical initiatives, the SMC’s team had briefing meetings with the leaders of young musicians, accessible learning, youth participation and silver programmes.

SMC’s team followed SG colleagues in their work with the elderly – Sage Gateshead’s silver programme.

They sang and played with members of some silver choirs (rock, blue/jazz, musical, opera) and of the silver ukulele and percussion classes, and were supported by “buddies” – a member of the group that is responsible for helping newcomers out. SMC’s team accompanied Sage professionals leading music Sage Gateshead – Santa Marcelina Exchange Year One Report Page 7

sessions for older people needing care (suffering from dementia, for example), members of their family and carers.

As far as Accessible Learning is concerned, SMC’s team observed Sage’s colleagues not only deliver accessible music classes but also lead on-the-job training to professionals. SMC’s team also became acquainted with a close partner of Sage Gateshead, Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company run by and for people with learning disabilities. Members of the Lawnmowers Company taught the SMC musicians to play glass instruments, had lunch together, invited them for a collective creation music making, and also spoke some Portuguese since they had been to Brazil in the past. Also, the Lawnmowers invited SMC’s team for their performance at the Late Shows, a free culture event in many venues around Gateshead and Newcastle.

Regarding professional development, SMC’s team met 1 teacher and 11 students on the three year BA (Hons) Community Music course delivered by the Sage Gateshead and Sunderland University in partnership.

SMC’s team learned from them and for its part explained about Guri Santa Marcelina social-musical education programme and Guri Santa Marcelina’s ways of working with Paulo Freire’s social pedagogy.

Sage Gateshead maintains a wide range of folk music making opportunities. SMC’s team visited SG folk music classes, tried playing folk instruments like the whistle and the Northumbrian pipe and tried clog dancing. SMC’s team also watched performances of SG and other local folk bands at a folk music gathering, in which a local group played Brazilian drums. The same day in the evening SMC’s team participated in a ceilidh dancing (a traditional collective form of social dance event), and performed Brazilian songs accompanied by Brazilian percussion to about 150 people.

Within Sage Gateshead’s concert hall facilities, the SMC team watched a diverse collection of musical performances and concerts during their stay, including; Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus performance, a swing/country band show, the closing concert of a female barbershop competition, a participatory children’s musical with songs from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and an installation of contemporary classical music with DJ sets on Sage Gateshead’s concourse.

By the end of their stay, SMC’s team led a workshop on social-musical pedagogy to SG staff and partners.

Guri Santa Marcelina’s social coordinator talked about social pedagogy as practiced in Guri Santa Marcelina programme; reflected upon the pedagogy of hope, dialogical education and music as a right; and explained about Brazilian laws regarding children and adolescent rights. SMC also interacted with SG’s young people’s action group, a group of young people concerned about young people social issues in the region – such as youth unemployment, lack of opportunities, having to leave their hometowns or countries to seek work and difficulties they had experienced in accessing formal music training.

Public seminar – May 24th 2013, Gateshead In addition, SG and SMC’s team jointly hosted and led a public seminar event in order to bring together musicians and pedagogues from both organisations to discuss pertinent issues related to music education arising the exchange thus far and was open to anyone interested in learning more about the work of Santa Sage Gateshead – Santa Marcelina Exchange Year One Report Page 8

Marcelina Cultura, Sage Gateshead’s Learning and Participation programme and the exchange project itself.

The content of the morning was designed to be of particular relevance to those interested in social pedagogy within music education, professional development of music educators and issues of democratic teaching and learning within music education.

This event included presentations about the work of SMC, the exchange to date and lively group discussions on set themes. These activities enabled colleagues from both organizations who participated in the initial visit to São Paulo and the return leg to Gateshead to share insights and develop thinking about the learning developed to date through the exchange with a wider group of music educators from within SG, from local music education hubs, independent music and arts organisations and universities within the region.

The format of this event and questions posed for discussion are included at the end of this report as Appendix 1.

The learning – emergent themes The prevalent and emerging themes and areas of music education borne out in the data collected and from joint discussion during the first leg visit (Gateshead to São Paulo) were as follows: • • • • • • • •

Curriculum & Pedagogy Formal, Informal & Non-formal Teaching & Learning Organisational & Cultural Comparison Progression for Learners Professional Development for Music Educators Excellence, Quality and Evaluation Inclusion & Accessibility Social Pedagogy

These themes have been cross-referenced with the data collected by SMC colleagues in both the autumn 2012 activity in São Paulo and the May 2013 visit to Sage Gateshead in order to identify the recurrent themes within the thinking across the two organisations. This will, in turn, provide the focus of enquiry for the preceding stage of the exchange in autumn 2013.

Examples of the learning - Gateshead responds to São Paulo The collated reflective diary data from Sage Gateshead musicians in São Paulo , using the key themes identified by both organisations during the visit as a structure, gave an initial indication and flavour of the developing cross-organisational and cultural learning and thought stimulated by this first year of the exchange:

Curriculum & Pedagogy Teaching and leading music workshops through translators in São Paulo resulted in reflection on

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the part of the Sage Gateshead musicians on the extent to which their teaching methods rely on verbal instruction as opposed to active demonstration and modelling of vocal/instrumental technique.

Questions arose for them as to how they might consider and utilise more non-verbal teaching methods and develop less instructive approaches for some contexts; considering the benefits that learning by doing, as opposed to listening, presents for music learners.

A regular point for discussion and observation within diaries was about the cultural and attitudinal difference between Brazil and the UK in relation to time keeping and pace during music lessons. SG musicians all noted that the pace of SMC teaching was much slower and relaxed than at home. Students were at liberty to come and go as needed within the day’s music teaching and time was spent ensuring aspects of the learning were properly absorbed by all students before moving on to the next activity.

The musicians agreed that this resulted in a sense of less activity being contained within a session than might be in a UK context, but that the quality of teaching and learning was retained at a high standard.

Furthermore, it was evident that this ‘less is more’ approach was of benefit to the students, who were at ease with it and able to progress at their own individual rates.

Formal, informal & non-formal teaching & learning In the context of this exchange we use this theme subheading to denote reflection and discussion encompassing issues concerned with music education within and without the ‘conservatoire’ context and also questions concerning Western classical music education methods (such as score and notation based music learning) compared with oral tradition methods (such as learning by ear).

In almost all circumstances observed by the SG team, the young people were studying formal repertoire from notated scores. This raised questions as to whether this choice of predominantly western classical music and music instruction might potentially isolate some young people from participating within the programme. Musicians also observed that the Brazilian young people involved in the SMC programme seemed to demonstrate less negative attitudes towards classical repertoire and score based learning than might be expected from young people of a similar age and context in the UK. This led to reflection on issues of pupil voice and agency in relation to choosing repertoire and ways of learning. The SG musicians noted that the young people were able and willing to communicate their thoughts and feelings about what and how they were learning and that mutual respect between tutors and students was highly evident in all the SMC work.

Excellence, quality & evaluation A key point of learning for the SG musicians was the way in which SMC use Facebook and social media to enable their young participants to evaluate and promote the programme. Through social media, the young people talk to each other about their workshops, leaving comments and opinions about what they are studying. In this way, the young people are engaged in debate about their music learning and SMC staff are then able to capture these comments to support the development of the programme to suit the Sage Gateshead – Santa Marcelina Exchange Year One Report Page 10

needs of the students. The SG musicians were very inspired by this and returned to the UK thinking about ways in which they could replicate and utilise this mutual exchange through social media to benefit their own programmes and participants.

Organisational & cultural comparison The musicians agreed that it was both inspiring and interesting to see the similarities and differences in the UK and Brazilian music education contexts and in way Sage Gateshead and Santa Marcelina Cultura work to achieve similar outcomes and with shared purpose.

The willingness to reflect upon practice of musicians and staff from both our organisations was evident and remarkable, as was the fact that both teams were clearly accustomed to operating within a reflective environment. Both were open to questions and constructive criticism enabling further learning to take place with ease. For the SG musicians, this was in sharp contrast to experiences they’ve had in trying to work in this way with some organisations in our own region. In the case of the SMC/SG exchange there was a strong and overriding sense of learning from and enriching each other’s practice, which has not been so much the case in the local context. Colleagues felt that this easy commitment to shared learning might arise from the clear separation between our operating environments, meaning we bring external perspectives to one another’s work and cultural contexts without any residual fear of professional competition or pressure.

All musicians felt that reflecting on brief experiences was challenging and there was a need to be mindful that the SG musicians had only witnessed a small amount of SMC practice in a relatively short space of time. Furthermore, all agreed that it was important to be mindful of generalisations that might be made as a result of this first encounter, and that we must all remain open to changes of opinion and new ideas that will inevitably occur as we jointly explore each other’s practice, and collaborate to create new work, during the remaining years of the exchange.

Social pedagogy This was the area in which the SG musicians felt Sage Gateshead had most to learn from SMC and musicians admired the social pedagogical approach and a desire to emulate it in the UK context.

Having seen the ways in which the social workers supported the music teaching and learning within the Guri programme, the SG musicians were keen to consider ways in which their own programmes could benefit under similar circumstances and how that might be put into practice in the UK. They noted that the role of the social worker eased and enhanced the musician-student relationship and also enriched the work, in that the social worker is able to comment on the positive impact music may have on a young person’s well-being. The SG musicians felt stronger connections with social and youth workers would be of great benefit to their own work in terms of its impact on individual young or vulnerable students, measuring outcomes and in securing funding based on those measured outcomes.

As a result of observing the ways in which SMC includes, involves and supports the parents and families of its students, SG musicians have been considering ways to develop stronger connections with the families of participants.

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Examples of the learning - São Paulo responds to Gateshead The collated reflective diary data from São Paulo musicians in Gateshead continued to use the same themes.

Organisational & cultural comparison As a music education and social action programme for young people, Guri Santa Marcelina is comparable to Sage Gateshead’s Learning & Participation division.

In accordance with its contract with São Paulo State Government, SMC delivers classes in long-term fixed curriculums solely in its music schools, whereas SG employs more flexible curriculums and class formats, thus being able to work in tailored project basis with a wide range of schools and institutions.

SG also offers its expertise to train teachers of partners and other institutions in music.

Whilst GSM courses are totally free of charge providing even pencils and music notebooks, SG’s are usually paid for, although financial assistance may be available and depends on household income.

Within Guri Santa Marcelina’s work, social action is intertwined with core music education, what SMC calls social-musical pedagogy; for its part, Sage Gateshead has special musical projects devised as social actions. Appreciating the breadth of SG’s provision in terms of age range, SMC wonders about the possibility developing a programme for children younger than 6 years old and also expanding its adult offers.

It seems the tradition of vocal practice in the UK guarantees a shared vocal reference that spares SG colleagues from the troubles SMC’s team faces in Brazil in developing group vocal tuning, timbre and blending. An example is the spontaneous clean sonority of amateurs at SG that learn their 3-voice folk songs by ear. This would require a group of more experienced amateur singers in São Paulo. Another example is SG’s group “Find Your Voice”, aimed at those who feel uncomfortable with their voices, whose members already sing rounds and popular songs in 3 voices, whilst in São Paulo such skill would require a lot of work from regular amateurs. One last example is the high quality amateur barbershop singing in the UK, which would only be found in professional groups in São Paulo.

Curriculum & pedagogy Sage Gateshead provides many courses on folk music making such as fiddle, whistle, accordion, pipes and other instruments playing, clog dancing and folk music group practice. SG has even a specific folk strand and co-founded England’s only folk music degree with Newcastle University. Guri Santa Marcelina’s pedagogical plan includes folk music practice as part of the curriculum. However this usually happens in isolation like the “Bumba meu boi”, “Côco de roda” and “Pífanos” projects and the “grupo de choro” ensemble.

Although a piano is available in most of SG choir rehearsals, it is only used to get the reference pitch and the choir leader often sings and rehearses a cappella, sometimes using just a tuning whistle. That made SMC’s team reflect on the role of the collaborative pianist in its choir and singing classes and the effects of his/her practices on the development or underdevelopment of students’ inner ear and musical mind.

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Scheduling vocal warm-ups for instrument players, like the “Singing warm-up session” on Sundays and the “Shake-up and sing” class for children inspired SMC to consider including this practice in its auditioned groups programme.

The creative projects classes, where the teacher wonders and discuss with students about what to learn and how, and the extensive use of the Dalcroze and Kodaly techniques in children’s classes were also inspiring to SMC’s team.

SMC’s team noted that the structure of SG’s musicianship classes for 5-9 years old children (Young Musicians Programme) is very similar to Guri Santa Marcelina’s: improvisation, collective creation, Dalcroze and Kodaly based – use of movement and singing as a means to music language.

Professional development for music educators The three year BA (Hons.) Community Music degree delivered through the partnership between Sage Gateshead and Sunderland University not only develops professionals but also raises awareness of the community music concept and its social role.

The continuing on-the-job training promoted by the SG strand leaders to the wider SG music educator team is particularly interesting to SMC.

Informal, formal and non-formal teaching and learning As stated previously in this report, in the context of this exchange enquiry, we use these terms in relation to issues concerned with music teaching and learning within and without the formal conservatoire context and also with reference to more formal score and notation based music learning, informal nonscore based oral tradition methods and learning aurally or by ear and on-the-job, non-formal learning and development.

Guri Santa Marcelina has made the pedagogical choice to teaching music literacy to all its students and has been strongly investing in that. Observing Sage Gateshead’s many vocal and folk groups that work without scores and also the folk instrument methods focused on teaching folk music not through notation but through hearing, raised much discussion in SMC’s team. This clarified that since institutions and learners have different needs and purposes, they have to make different pedagogical choices. There is no right or wrong choice, but that one that meets the institution’s and learners’ needs.

It is important to note how one of the Young People’s Action Group members perceives formal music learning within UK culture: that it is for those who can afford a private teacher, not for the working class.

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Inclusion & Accessibility It was important to observe how SG and SMC are trying to make music accessible to everybody, each in its own way.

Regarding physical and learning accessibility, SG runs special programmes to promote music making opportunities for young and adult people with learning and physical disabilities, for older people needing care and for all these people’s family members and carers, both as a single institution and with partners. SMC for its part works with an accessible learning consultant to provide teacher and staff training on including young people with physical and learning disabilities in the programme, and also nurtures a self-run project on learning accessibility.

As far as social inclusion is concerned, SG offers dedicated programmes for young people at social risk.

Guri Santa Marcelina’s inbuilt social-musical education strives to include any student, whether at social risk or not, into the same classes as any other student.

SG’s accessible learning positions of employment are worthy of note: there is a Strand Leader and also a Strategy Leader position within the SG staff body to develop strategies to increase accessible learning coverage and visibility.

Leadership and Management Experiencing SG’s organisational culture raised questions within SMC’s team. The way everybody speaks the same language and clearly understands their own role and the roles of colleagues within the SG organisation stimulated reflection on how information flows inside SMC and on how to enable operational level personnel to internalise mission, vision and pedagogical strategy. The observation that there is a sense of belonging among teachers regarding specific projects made SMC think of possible ways of inspiring trust and commitment among its employees. How does Sage Gateshead manage it?

Social Pedagogy SMC’s team found it remarkable that SG’s musical and social action extends across all segments of the community and across all ages.

SMC’s team believes that, besides the individual perspective, widening the collective perspective will foster the strengthening of the collective subject, thus helping individuals to support one another in each community.

In Brazil there are legal apparatus that protect children and adolescents rights (Children and Adolescents Statute) and that give directions about young people with disabilities studying preferably in the regular school system (Plano Nacional de Educação). Guri Santa Marcelina tries to follow these guidelines and is interested in understanding comparable legal instruments in the UK.

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Reflections on the experience – Gateshead responds to São Paulo Included below are excerpts from the SG team’s reflective diaries from São Paulo in response to the questions jointly employed by both organisations to aid reflection on what was experienced throughout both visits in the first leg of this exchange.

Q

What is surprising?

Teaching methods “The use of the fixed ‘doh’ as the basis for all music learning, vocal and instrumental within the Guri programme. I have never seen this used in this way before” “(SMC tutor) taught the theory lesson in a very clear, visual and engaging way - I was able to understand everything even though the lesson was in Portuguese and at that point, there wasn’t a translator with me. This is amazing as I often struggled to understand theory when I was at school, where it was taught in English!”

Prior beliefs and assumptions “[I was surprised] that the UK is thought here to be a good example of music education whereas actually there is varied quality of formal music education practice” “That they don’t do more traditional music. It’s funny that Brazil looks to the UK for education and music but we use lots of their educational pedagogy – particularly percussion styles”

High standard of teaching and learning despite student’s backgrounds and varied musical experience “The young people in almost all situations played to a very high standard regardless of the time they had been part of the project. [They] seemed to be very motivated and have a lot of selfdiscipline. There is obviously a very clear curriculum and some very good pedagogy to back it up.”

“I am surprised by the fact that young people from such deprived circumstance have such high aspiration levels. I do not see this with the majority of young people from equivalent circumstances in the UK. Why is this?” “[A translator] told me a little about the reality of life in the community of [name of centre omitted] and the knowledge of that makes it more surprising to observe the exemplary behaviour, appearance and commitment to learning of each and every student”

Cultural differences in terms of student/teacher relationships “In almost every centre, there was lots of affection between students, tutors and within in the student-tutor relationship. Whenever people arrived or left sessions they exchanged hugs, kisses on cheeks etc. This created a very relaxed learning environment. The young people appeared cared for and supported and most definitely respected. You would never see this sort of contact (in the UK) between teacher and student past key stage 1” (age 6-7years).

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“A genuine sense of enjoyment and friendship – this feels like a group of friends rather than a formal music class – lots of affectionate but platonic kisses hello and goodbye, high fives and fist bumps between students and teacher too yet the quality and focus remain high and the respect between students and teacher is clear” “We were treated like celebrities by the young people and parents, posing for 100s of photos and even being asked to sign autographs! Visitors are highly valued and appreciated here”

Q What is challenging?

“What is challenging is going to be establishing a dialogue where criticism is natural and accepted.

The ability to say ‘why did you do that?’ or ‘I would have done that differently’. This will come with getting better acquainted, I hope.”

“It was hard to keep my explanations to a minimum when I led, especially in the Music Initiation class to reduce the need for translation. I hadn’t realised how much I over explain when it’s possibly not needed in my own sessions”

Q What practice is inspiring?

Pedagogy “Solfege sight singing – easy, accessible and inclusive”

Caring curriculum and attitudes “At the end of the afternoon, all of the singers were given a very substantial bagged lunch for the journey home, which for some of them would be a long one. I noticed that a mid morning sandwich, fruit and juice package was provided last Saturday at EMESP to keep the children going.

Guri are very thorough in their approach to the wellbeing and care of their students and the packed lunches illustrate this fact nicely.”

“This was an excellent vocal workshop. (SMC tutor) was leading about 60 young people, age range 12 – 18 years. The group was able to sight-read and had great sound quality. He (tutor) found excellence but in a very calm and relaxed way. When young people’s mistakes were exposed there was amazing warmth in the room that meant mistakes only ever turned into learning rather than people being made to feel isolated. The repertoire was very formal but the approach very informal.”

Student’s agency over their own music learning “I found it interesting to listen to the youth choir singing outside in the courtyard, conducting each other (very competently) and showing off what they could do. They were liberated vocally and sang the best I’d heard them when they were singing informally and sharing material they knew by heart rather than using scores. Such joy and really good quality singing.”

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Q What is the learning for me?

Musicians from both organisations learning and making music together “Working with the wind tutor on some penny whistle, we were joined by (two SMC staff) and two other wind tutors. We got a couple of sets together really quickly and then at the end of the second afternoon session we went in to the hall and the staff were the band while the young people danced a “circassian circle” and then a “strip the willow” (traditional ceilidh dances) Absolutely great fun!”

Q

What ideas do I think might transfer/be adaptable to my context?

“Child/youth/parent choirs all singing and learning together rather than separated by age range” “Working alongside a designated social worker in some projects would enhance and enrich our work”

“Think about the crucial spoken instruction and eliminate the unnecessary chatter in my classes” “I’d like to observe SG instrumental projects in depth such as Weekend School, Open Studio and Foundation Studio to make comparisons with what I’ve observed and experienced today here in São Paulo.”

“I am going think how I can make my participants feel more cared for”

Q

What is the learning for Sage Gateshead?

“I would love to bring a parents choir to our weekend school” “Young people of all backgrounds given opportunity to be the best” “Rigorousness about developing the individual voices as well as the whole sound [in choirs/ vocal groups]” “Guri want everyone to be the best musician they can be and so everyone is supported through the same curriculum. This obviously gives a young person from an economically deprived background the opportunity to make it in to a conservatoire or equivalent. This has raised some questions around whether we at SG also offer the same curriculum to all or whether we have one route for one individual and another route for another individual. I truly believe that our pedagogy should be different for each person we work with but how different should our curriculum be?”

“Are we able to have a stronger connection with social workers/ youth workers in the UK?” Sage Gateshead – Santa Marcelina Exchange Year One Report Page 17

Unexpected outcomes Staffing considerations in terms of equal gender representation “As a result of seeing the impact on children of positive male musical models within the SMC teaching staff, I realized my programme was only taught by women. As a result, I have sought out and hired an excellent male musician to work regularly on our early years programme. This has had a positive impact on the programme, enabling him to develop new music leading skills with very young children whilst simultaneously, providing children and families with the opportunity to access a wider range of musicians and role models”

The opportunity to compare concert halls as well as music education practice “It was interesting seeing around the concert hall (Sala de São Paulo) – it really highlights the different atmosphere we have in our building – lots of things going on, meetings, informal concerts and rehearsals etc – a lively building. This concert hall was very different, still and quiet.”

New ideas about future possibilities “Can we use this shared experience with Guri to create an amazing curriculum and pedagogy that is distinct and impressive and that can be rolled out across the world in the same way El Sistema has been?”

Reflections on the experience - São Paulo responds to Gateshead Included below are excerpts from the SMC team’s reflective diaries from Gateshead in response to the questions jointly employed by both organisations to aid reflection on what was experienced throughout both visits in the first year of this exchange

Q What is surprising?

About adult and silver choirs and percussion class “It was very impressive to observe the quality level of the work and the easiness of the students.”

“Silver groups (Silver Choir, Silver Rock and Silver Ukulele) are groups that inspire by the nice way that teachers deal with the students.”

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About SG’s project for students with learning disabilities “Very impressed by the quality , organisation, infrastructure” “There is no distinction between “disabled” and “non disabled”, if we can say so. The big learning is that, since we all have disabilities in some areas, it is necessary to include and integrate, with respect and equality.”

“Lawnmowers – inspires and challenges. It is a wonder the amount of autonomy that is granted to the students of the project. It was possible to learn a lot with the students.”

“When we exchanged experience with the glass instruments group, not only musical, but also life experience, I more strongly realized we all can receive a music education with quality, independent of who you are.”

About SG’s teachers “[One of SG’s teachers] is not afraid of daring, of letting the kids express themselves. This is marvellous!...There was a great balance between commitment to the job and the lightness with which children were treated” “It is a pleasure when a music institution, well represented by its teachers, can work in a regular school backed up by teachers of the latter and intervene positively in the community.”

Q What is challenging?

About intergenerational and social gatherings sponsored and organised by SG “On the evening of 25th May we went to a folk music festival (Hexham Gathering) with group dancing that united people of all ages and different groups of friends and families, and it was simply marvellous to take part in it!”

About understanding SG’s broad and complex network, by observing sample classes for just two weeks “It is important to note that we were in one or two of the same classes which are actually part of a long process developed by the teacher with his/her class; this is quite little for a deep analysis, but in general it was possible to notice that teacher’s practices vary according to the school system in which they are working.”

Reflecting on how to improve Guri Santa Marcelina’s practices, after observing SG’s - The role of the collaborative pianist “Leaders use the piano very little. This really made me think about the role of the piano and of the collaborative pianist in Guri’s choir classes, including myself in this questioning. Have I been promoting a “lazy listening” to my choir students?”

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Music making without notation or scores “I’ve noticed many choirs never use scores. I’d like to better understand this practice, as well as the reasons for such a choice on the part of leaders.”

The possibility of broadening of Guri Santa Marcelina’s age coverage “I was impressed with how [one of SG’s teachers] leads her violin class to 6 years old students: many games, using sung commands, with a lot of patience, the students learn to play while having fun. This class stimulated a reflection: could Guri students start learning an instrument still earlier, in such a creative and playful way?”

Q What is inspiring?

About having top musicians as teachers at SG “It called my attention that instrument classes are taught by Royal Northern Sinfonia musicians: this demonstrates the much the institution values the programme, and the understanding that educators also have to be good musicians.”

About the project that gathers students from different communities to make music together “Big Sing – this practice inspires and is adaptable to our context in Brazil. Big Sing is a practice that happens in many regular schools in Gateshead, and allows students to sing in a group, without the need for auditions.”

About SG’s teacher pedagogy “Classes with a lot of technical content taught in a playful and experimental way.”

About SG’s leveraging the work of other institutions “It is a big learning to realize that Sage Gateshead has partnerships in many fields.”

Unexpected outcomes About the Sage Gateshead-Santa Marcelina Cultura experience exchange programme “This partnership is of extreme musical, social and cultural value for the involved institutions.” “[to take part in this exchange is] certainly one of my biggest and best artistic and life experiences!”

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“It is surprising to discover that we all carry difficulties, uncertainty and concerns, but above all there is our will to share good things through music!”

“This whole exchange is very inspiring and challenging, most especially if we consider all the differences between our social realities, education and culture.”

“Teaching concepts and methods used by each institution are reflections of their culture, education and social condition.”

“It was very enriching to exchange experience with our other choir leaders” “The talk about Guri Santa Marcelina, by Guri Santa Marcelina Pedagogical Manager, was one of the most emotional moments for me, and while crying I thought: Guri has reached its target. We are music educators without frontiers.”

Looking ahead Both organisations and the teams involved in this exchange agree that this first phase was an enormous success in terms of bringing together expertise and experience in pedagogical approaches to vocal and instrumental teaching from both organisations.

Positive and supportive professional relationships have now been well established amongst the music educators involved, thus creating a community of practice and research enquiry between the two partner organisations that we believe will yield fascinating and valuable insights into music education approaches with particular focus on developing informal, formal and social pedagogies alongside the exploration of the pertinent issues described above.

The ongoing conversations between the partner organisations on these issues and resultant findings will be located within an online environment to ensure continued exploration as each phase of the exchange develops.

A study group for deeper thought and debate on the relevant issues is planned for Sage Gateshead Learning & Participation colleagues following on from the public seminar on May 24th as part of our emerging research strategy to ensure wider participation in the knowledge exchange. It is hoped that the resultant data may in time yield publishable research and other material for wider benefit.

SMC is looking forward to understand better how Sage Gateshead manage its intellectual capital (knowhow, knowledge, relationships) and how it guarantees vision and strategy alignment from decision to operational level. Both partners are looking forward immensely to working on developing future shared SG-SMC projects, classes and potential publications.

Year 2 exchange visits will follow the same pattern, with an expanded Gateshead team travelling to São Paulo in October, and a Brazilian team returning to Gateshead in May/June. We are also delighted to be extending the exchange to include colleagues from partner organisations Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company (Gateshead) and Mais Diferencas (São Paulo), both focused on inclusive practice.

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Appendix 1 Running order for first public seminar, May 24th 2013 at Sage Gateshead Transforming Music Education: Sharing and developing practice in Brazilian and British contexts

10:00 Welcome and introduction giving brief context to the project and the seminar itself, Katherine Zeserson 10:10 Presentation by Giuliana Frozoni – background information on the work of Guri Santa Marcelina 10:40 Questions for Giuliana 10:50 Brief presentation by Julia Partington - introducing the emergent themes & proposing the

questions for small group discussion 10:55 Small group discussions

Over-arching question for all What is a democratic music education?

4 groups to also discuss: 1. How do we support the training of music educators to enable them to serve learners appropriately?

2. How do our cultural conditions – historically developed practices, unspoken social and educational assumptions - affect our current practice?

3. What challenges do we face when ensuring sustained inclusion in music education programmes for learners?

4. The relationship between the individual, the group and the dominant ideology is constantly changing. How do we work with this dynamic within music education?

11:30 – 12:10 • Feedback from small groups and capturing their thoughts • Final questions 12:10 – 12:30: 20 minutes – for SMC musicians to perform, and to lead some whole group music making

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