Escuela Experimental de Música "Jorge Peña Hen" (La Serena, Chile): Principles of the educational project and its benefits according to the experience of its former students (1971-2021)

Abstract

Through this document, we propose to identify the principles that shaped the founding process of the Escuela Experimental de Música “Jorge Peña Hen” (EEM) in the city of La Serena in 1965 and to verify whether its graduates recognize having obtained specific benefits from this experience. A quantitative methodology with an exploratory scope and cross-sectional data collection was applied. The findings reveal that more than a quarter of the EEM alumni who expressed their opinions through an ad hoc questionnaire (n=307) pursued professional musical careers, while a considerable number remain engaged in amateur musical practice and regularly attend concerts. The acquisition of extramusical social skills is also acknowledged. In this sense, the artistic, educational, recreational, outreach, humanist, democratizing, and decentralizing principles of its founder have been fulfilled. Therefore, the experience of having studied at EEM has provided recognizable benefits among those who went through this educational system during their schooling years.