Ravinia Education Director Named Chair Of El Sistema USA

From Ravinia Festival Association: Christine Taylor Conda, Director of the Reach Teach Play education programs at Ravinia, North America’s oldest and most musically diverse music festival, has been named Chair of the El Sistema USA board of directors for a one-year term. She has been a member of El Sistema USA’s board for two years. “Christine Taylor Conda brings the experience in education and social justice leadership crucial to advancing the work of El Sistema USA. I am excited to begin our partnership in supporting the national movement of El Sistema, passionately building communities and opportunity for all through music education,” said Katie Wyatt, Executive Director of El Sistema USA.

The mission of El Sistema USA is to support and grow a nationwide movement of programs inspired by El Sistema—the immersive music education process originally developed in Venezuela that puts instruments into the hands of a child to begin playing immediately without being bogged down in music theory and history—to affect social change through music for children with the fewest resources and the greatest need. El Sistema USA’s diverse membership across the United States represents programs that serve some of the most vulnerable communities and children in the country.

The organization provides connections to knowledge and innovation, advocacy, and leadership development for program directors, teaching artists, students, and volunteers. Members collaborate to share resources, values, aspirations, and advocacy efforts. El Sistema USA serves three major purposes: strengthening existing “nucléos” (student groups learning and performing music through El Sistema principles) through capacity development and research, encouraging the formation of new nucléos through providing resources, connections and training, and building awareness of the El Sistema movement at large throughout the United States. Information is available at ElsistemaUSA.org. “The children in all of our programs nationwide deserve the highest levels of artistic and social support. I’m honored to serve on the board with my colleagues who share this view and are passionate about supporting the 20,000 kids now benefitting from El Sistema initiatives,” Taylor Conda said. “As board members, we are stewards of ESUSA and have a tremendous responsibility to the el Sistema-inspired community.

At Ravinia, I have witnessed how truly great boards operate to advance the missions of the organization. In fact, I am forever grateful to Ravinia’s Women’s Board for initiating our education programs. I hope to bring those experiences to bare during my tenure as ESUSA board chair.” Taylor Conda has been director of education at Ravinia for 16 years. With counsel and major funding from the all-volunteer Women’s Board, which created Ravinia’s education initiatives in the 1960s, she has grown these programs to serve more than 85,000 people annually throughout Chicagoland. Armed with that board’s long-range plan identifying El Sistema as an important opportunity, Christine developed Sistema Ravinia, starting student orchestras in budget-strapped schools without music programs of their own, by providing all the instruments and the El Sistema instructors. “Through Christine’s work with our Women’s Board, we have all seen worlds open for the children who have picked up instruments for the first time. We see their joy turn to passion and then pride,” said Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. “We at Ravinia couldn’t be prouder that Christine is sharing her own passion and profound experience with orchestra leaders around the country.” She had previously served as Program Director of the Forum Network at Boston’s Pubic Broadcasting Service, WGBH, and as Executive Director of the Boston Music Educations Collaborative. She earned her B.A. in sociology with a focus on urban education from Harvard University and Master of Music in Vocal Performance and a Music in Education certification from the New England Conservatory of Music.

Image (attached) via Ravinia Festival Association