Sonorous Worlds

Series

• Music and Social Justice

Yana Stainova is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University.

Praise / Awards

• “Incisive and captivating, Sonorous Worlds leaves you with a feeling for which there are no words. The sentient, the storied, and the unresolved merge seamlessly in Yana Stainova’s bracing ethnographic composition. Like the music at its center, the writing pulls you in and carries you far. A magnificent feat, a must-read for our dire times.”
  —João Biehl, Princeton University
• "By some hailed as visionary, by others reviled as propaganda, Venezuela’s once-vaunted El Sistema has—like much else in the country—become mired in antagonistic debate.  Sonorous Worlds cuts through the diatribe by focusing on the everyday experiences of the program’s young musicians, their families, and instructors as they navigate seemingly dissonant contexts: urban violence, luxury travel, social hierarchies, political turmoil, world-class performances. Combining a musician’s ear with gripping ethnography and novel theoretical reflections on sound, enchantment, and the ineffable, Stainova shows how the unpredictable emotions that music elicits at once empower and constrain El Sistema’s members to imagine alternative futures for themselves and their nation in ways that resist easy manipulation. More than a study of Venezuela or music, Sonorous Worlds is a master lesson on how deep listening can expose complex meanings beyond polarized narratives."
  —Alejandro Velasco, New York University
• “By inviting us into the sonorous worlds of El Sistema’s young musicians, Yana Stainova enriches and even transforms our understanding of music and the political. In reading the book’s twenty short, gem-like chapters, we begin to truly understand why, in the midst of deep social turmoil, young people in Venezuela would choose to devote their lives to perfecting the music of mostly long-dead and geographically distant composers. Written with humility and grace, Sonorous Worlds is an exceptional music ethnography and a compelling model for anthropology in the twenty-first century.”
  —Gavin Steingo, Princeton University
• “In Sonorous Worlds, Yana Stainova brings to life Venezuela’s famed El Sistema program. Stainova deftly places intimate portraits of the young musicians and their families within the program’s history and relationship to the politics and institutions around it. Ultimately, at the heart of the book is a profound exploration of music and its remarkable ability to empower individuals and communities.”
  —Francesco Lecce-Chong, Music Director of the Eugene Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony
• "Sonorous Worlds offers a note of hope in its celebration of utopian creativity through music."
  —NACLA Report on the Americas
• "Stainova’s book is an engaging combination of theoretical insight and observations from fieldwork and interviews with Sistema musicians spanning 2011-2018. ...This book will be interesting to music scholars, educators, and performers and anyone who has asked themselves questions about music and its place in society, particularly during times of struggle or unrest." 
  —CAML Review
• Winner: Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (SLACA) 2021 Book Prize
• Co-Winner: Society for Humanistic Anthropology (SHA) 2022 Edie Turner First Book Prize in Ethnographic Writing
• Winner: CASCA (Canadian Anthropological Society) 2022 Labrecque-Lee Book Prize