NEOJIBA: Plugging the ‘Success’ Leak

Authors: Mariana Pinto (Portgual), Catalina Rodriguez Grisales (Colombia)

In late 2017, the leadership of NEOJIBA, Brazil’s thriving state-funded music education program, reviewed its annual student retention data. The numbers told a paradoxical story: the program was exceptionally successful at launching its older students (ages 18-24) into university and professional careers. However, this very success was creating a strategic vulnerability. NEOJIBA was consistently losing its most skilled and experienced young musicians, the very individuals who should have formed the artistic backbone of its top ensembles. A primary driver was an unresolved scheduling conflict with the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), the only local university with a music performance degree. NEOJIBA’s leadership now faced a critical decision: should they formalize a new strategy to retain this critical demographic, effectively creating a “pre-professional” tier within their organisation?

BACKGROUND

Inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, NEOJIBA (State Centers of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Bahia) was founded in 2007 with a dual mission of promoting social integration and achieving artistic excellence through ensemble-based music. Backed by the government of Bahia State, the program grew rapidly, reaching 5,700 children and adolescents within its first decade. A key strength of its model is an internal talent pipeline, with many of its current teaching artists having started as students in the program, ensuring a deep-seated commitment to NEOJIBA’s mission and values.

THE ORGANISATIONAL MODEL

NEOJIBA operates a tiered system of orchestras and choirs, with a strong emphasis on collective practice as the primary vehicle for both musical and social development. While the model has proven highly effective at nurturing talent, it also produces a “success paradox.” When its most advanced students achieve the program’s ultimate goal—enrolling in university or securing employment—they are forced to leave.

This creates a “leaky pipeline” at the very top of the organisation. Exit interviews confirm that the majority of departures are driven by these positive life steps. The conflict is particularly acute with UFBA, where incompatible schedules force students to make an “either/or” choice between their university studies and their participation in NEOJIBA. This attrition prevents the program from reaching its full artistic potential and maximizing its internal mentorship capacity, as the most seasoned players and natural leaders are systematically drained from the ecosystem.

THE STRATEGIC CHALLENGE

The core challenge for NEOJIBA is to redefine its student lifecycle. The current model implicitly treats university enrollment as a graduation point, effectively functioning like a K-12 system. This creates a direct and unnecessary conflict with key higher education partners and puts a ceiling on the organisation’s own artistic and social development. The constant churn of top talent has two major negative impacts:

1. An Artistic Ceiling: The quality of the program’s flagship orchestras is capped, as they are perpetually losing their most experienced principal players and section leaders.
2. A Social Capital Drain: The departure of older students removes a vital layer of peer mentors and role models, increasing the pedagogical burden on teachers and weakening the powerful, multi-generational social fabric that is a hallmark of the El Sistema model.

The strategic challenge is to design a new value proposition that makes it not only possible, but highly beneficial, for these 18-to-24-year-olds to remain deeply engaged with NEOJIBA while pursuing their university studies.

A NEW FRAMEWORK: THE PRE-PROFESSIONAL FELLOWSHIP MODEL

A proposed solution is to create a formal “NEOJIBA Pre-Professional Fellowship” for advanced students. This would establish a new, elite tier within the organisation, shifting the status of these young adults from “participants” to “fellows” and offering a tailored value proposition with new responsibilities and benefits. The model would have three core components:

1. University Partnership and Academic Credit: Proactively negotiate a formal partnership with UFBA to resolve scheduling conflicts and explore pathways for students to receive academic credit for their participation in NEOJIBA’s top orchestra. This would transform a competitive relationship into a symbiotic one.
2. Formalised Peer Tutoring: Require fellows to serve as peer tutors and sectional coaches for younger ensembles. In return, provide them with pedagogical training and an official certificate for this work, adding a valuable credential to their resumes.
3. Enhanced Individualised Training: Offer fellows exclusive access to individual lessons, chamber music coaching, and masterclasses, addressing a known weakness in the organisation’s highly collectivist model and providing a clear incentive for them to stay.

IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

Implementing this fellowship model would require a significant strategic effort. The critical first step is a high-level negotiation with UFBA to align the schedules and curricula of two large institutions. The model also requires a reallocation of resources to fund the new individualised instruction and pedagogical training components. Furthermore, formalising certifications for tutoring and performance experience would necessitate developing new curricula, assessment standards, and administrative oversight. Culturally, the organisation would need to manage the shift from viewing these young adults as students to treating them as junior professional artists and educators.

DECISION POINT

NEOJIBA’s leadership faced a strategic choice born of its own success. The “leaky pipeline” was not a sign of failure, but a challenge of maturation.

Option A: Maintain the Status Quo. This path would involve continuing to celebrate the departure of older students as a sign of mission fulfillment. The organisation could focus its resources on the thousands of younger students in the pipeline, accepting that the top ensembles will always have a high level of churn. This is the lower-risk, lower-cost path that avoids complex institutional negotiations and programmatic restructuring.

Option B: Invest in the Apex. This path would involve committing to the development and funding of the Pre-Professional Fellowship model. This would require dedicating significant leadership time and financial resources to building this new, elite tier. This is a higher-risk, higher-reward strategy that aims to elevate the entire organisation to a new level of artistic excellence and deepen its social impact by creating a powerful, self-sustaining mentorship cycle.

The decision rested on a fundamental question about the ideal endpoint of the NEOJIBA student journey. Should the organisation be a launchpad that sends its best talent elsewhere, or should it evolve into a comprehensive conservatory model that retains and cultivates that talent to its highest potential?