Why Music Matters

El Sistema

NEC Adopts El Sistema
Venezuela’s famed classical music education system, El Sistema, is coming to the United States through a pilot program at the New England Conservatory. The Boston Globe reports that in the first phase of the program, which began this fall, 10 students are being trained to open "musical education centers in parts of the United States where children couldn’t normally afford instruments." The plan is to train an additional 40 students to run such centers over the next 5 years.

El Sistema has trained thousands of Venezuelan children in music, many of them from poor socioeconomic backgrounds, and has recently gained additional renown since former El Sistema student Gustavo Dudamel’s appointment as director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

To learn more, visit www.necmusic.edu.