Abstract
This chapter focuses on the paradoxical nature of the demand for wooden instruments created by programs like El Sistema, the national music education program in Venezuela. Suggesting a sociological link between neoliberal, anthropocentric music education practices (emphasizing virtuosity, hierarchy, and competitiveness) and the resultant exploitation of the natural world, the chapter problematizes the rising demand for tonewoods in Venezuela as a disturbingly ironic meeting of needs through El Sistema’s work with students in disadvantaged contexts. As such, the loss of local luthier expertise, the resultant economic impact, and the destruction of nature involved in the mass production of musical instruments are all revealed as vestiges of neo-colonialism in this groundbreaking work.
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