El Sistema - 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.

El Sistema 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 El Sistema 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.

This is an initiative we need to get going again in the UK. I was also the beneficiary of a musical education coming as I did from a poor background. I grew up in a bad neighbourhood and we always had problems with violence. My father had the good wisdom and courage to put me into music school at an early age, something for which he sacrificed and I will always be eternally grateful.

The result of that was I was always busy as a young person in a very rich, rewarding and creative environment, mixing with nice, creative people. Had I not been there, I am sure I would have to got into trouble for it was inevitable given the area we lived in.

The result of that early and intense exposure to a musical education was that I did better at school across a range of subjects, I developed social skills early on especially the confidence to communicate, I had a greater awareness of cultures from other countries and history through music and most importantly, at a time in my mid teens when I found it most difficult to cope, music was there as a release and a means of self discipline to act as a guide and a way of investing my energy in rewarding and creative pursuits.

The study of music gave me the chance to travel, something I would never have done being poor and it gave me tools later in life to study further in my adult life and acquire skills and qualifications in other subject areas purely because the discipline of playing an instrument and the mental challenge it creates was a wonderful platform for further study.

The benefits of music for everyone are plain for all to see from the video. More importantly, we must get music back on the core curriculum for everyone, not just classical but all forms of music, playing, study, music appreciation taking students to concerts. gigs and festivals is all part of what I call the rich learning experience I had as a young person.

It is so important to bring people together today and music is one of those simple things that can help to do just that. I know the In Harmony project has started in England and is based on El Sistema but it is only on a small scale. We need desperately to get music available to everyone that wants to do it. The rewards are clear to see and the money invested will reap a rich harvest of talented people.

The Portal of Healing.