How Music Saved Venezuela’s Children
The remarkable accomplishment of a great humanist, José Antonio Abreu, who dedicated his life to set up the ‘Sistema’ in 1975, an extraordinary music and social project which has been running in Venezuela in an attempt to transform the lives of the nations poorest children.
It has been using classical music to tackle the social problems of a country where 60% of the population live below the poverty line. By offering free instruments and tuition through a network of after-school centres all over the country, the Sistema has kept thousands of children away from the drugs, alcohol and gang-related violence of the streets and has led to the creation of 30 professional orchestras in a country that had only 2 before it started. Currently, 275,000 children attend the Sistemas schools and many of them play in one of the 125 youth orchestras.
At the pinnacle of the system stands the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under its music director Gustavo Dudamel who is himself a product of the Sistema and is also the musical director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Many Faces of Gustavo Dudamel—From “Dudamel: Let the Children Play”
During “Discovery Day: El Sistema” on December 8, Carnegie Hall explores Venezuela’s spectacularly successful El Sistema educational program and its influence on educational thinking in the United States. The afternoon features a keynote lecture by Dr. Leon Botstein, a panel discussion with Dr. José Antonio Abreu, and a screening of the documentary “Dudamel: Let the Children Play.”
Thanks to the producers for permission to show this clip from the Alberto Arvelo’s documentary in which the many expressions of Gustavo Dudamel are at play.
More information about “Discovery Day” El Sistema” is available at http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2012/12/8/0100/PM/Discovery-Day-El-Sistema/
More information about “Voices from Latin America is available at http://www.carnegiehall.org/latinamerica/
“Dudamel: Let the Children Play” is a available for purchase at http://dudamel.net/Buy/paypal/
Gustavo Dudamel on El Sistema
“Voices from Latin America Artistic” Advisor Gustavo Dudamel on El Sistema—the spectacularly successful social action program from Venezuela—from which he emerged as a teenager to become the international face of the movement and music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.
More information about “Voices from Latin America” is available at http://www.carnegiehall.org/LatinAmerica
Gustavo Dudamel and Osvaldo Golijov on the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
“Voices from Latin America” artistic advisors Gustavo Dudamel and Osvaldo Golijov on the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, which Dudamel considers “a family” and which, for Golijov, is completely devoid of “cultural baggage.”
More information about “Voices from Latin America” is available at http://www.carnegiehall.org/LatinAmerica
3/11 El Sistema - The Promise of Music Dokumentär + Konsert
3/11 El Sistema - The Promise of Music Dokumentär + Konsert
