A visionary global movement that transforms the lives of children through music. A new model for social change.

Welcome to el Sistema USA.

33 years ago in a parking garage in Caracas, Dr. José Antonio Abreu gathered together 11 children to play music. El Sistema was born. It now teaches music to 300,000 of Venezuela’s poorest children, demonstrating the power of ensemble music to dramatically change the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of a nation’s youth while transforming the communities around them.

el Sistema USA is a support and advocacy network for people and organizations inspired by Venezuela’s monumental music education program. It will grow to provide comprehensive information on the El Sistema philosophy and methodology, and host a variety of resources that will aid those building, expanding and supporting El Sistema programs in the US and beyond.

Debuting the Abreu Fellows Program …

… the first initiative of el Sistema USA — a one-year postgraduate certificate program for accomplished young musicians who desire to become ambassadors of El Sistema and who are committed to developing it outside of Venezuela. Housed at New England Conservatory, Abreu Fellows will spend a year studying between Boston and Caracas, and leave with the tools to return to their communities to teach the El Sistema model.

The curriculum, teacher training materials and documentation of the Abreu Fellows Program will be freely available on elSistemaUSA.org as a resource for all to support local El Sistema programs being developed around the country and internationally.

  • “The orchestra and choir are much more than artistic studies. They are examples and schools of social life. To sing and to play together, means to intimately coexist”

  • “I studied music since I was four years old, and from that moment I became part of a family. And that family has taught me things; not only musical things, but things I have to face in life, and that is where the success of the system lies”

  • “Music is immensely important in the awakening of sensibility, in the forging of values and in the training of youngsters to teach others”

  • “If anybody asked me where is there something really important going on for the future of classical music I would simply have to say here, in Venezuela... I say I have seen the future of music in Venezuela and that is a resurrection”

  • “The truth is, I have never felt so moved. Not only because of the emotion of the moment... but I must say because of the quality of the El Sistema musicians”

  • “The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, ends up overcoming material poverty. From the minute a child’s taught how to play an instrument, he’s no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a professional level, who’ll later become a citizen”