After winning the 2006 International Emmy Award for his film “Knowledge is the Beginning”, director Paul Smaczny is now filming the new documentary that features ‘El Sistema’ in Venezuela.The Story
‘El Sistema’ is a network of children’s and youth orchestras, music centres and workshops in Venezuela, in which more than 250,000 children and young people are currently learning to play an instrument.It was set up over thirty years ago by José Antonio Abreu, who was driven by the utopian vision of a better future. In the dangerous and poverty-stricken shanty towns of Caracas, Abreu lifts children out of poverty through music, changing both people and structures. The story, which has all the makings of a fairytale, is the extraordinary account of a vision that has become reality. Several of the system’s young graduates now rank amongst the most coveted young talent in Europe - the most prominent being the 26-year-old conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the double bass player Edicson Ruiz, who at the age of 17 became the youngest musician ever to join the Berlin Philharmonic.
‘El Sistema’ is a network of children’s and youth orchestras, music centres and workshops in Venezuela, in which more than 250,000 children and young people are currently learning to play an instrument.It was set up over thirty years ago by José Antonio Abreu, who was driven by the utopian vision of a better future. In the dangerous and poverty-stricken shanty towns of Caracas, Abreu lifts children out of poverty through music, changing both people and structures. The story, which has all the makings of a fairytale, is the extraordinary account of a vision that has become reality. Several of the system’s young graduates now rank amongst the most coveted young talent in Europe - the most prominent being the 26-year-old conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the double bass player Edicson Ruiz, who at the age of 17 became the youngest musician ever to join the Berlin Philharmonic.
The film ‘El Sistema’ shows how Abreu’s astonishing ideas have led the way out of the vicious circle of poverty - and how the power of music has been able to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people.
The Project
“Originally art was made by a minority for a minority. Then it became art by a minority for the majority, and now we are at the beginning of a new era, where art is intended by the majority for the majority.” José Antonio Abreu
“Originally art was made by a minority for a minority. Then it became art by a minority for the majority, and now we are at the beginning of a new era, where art is intended by the majority for the majority.” José Antonio Abreu
Astonishingly, in Venezuela classical music has been taken from its ivory tower of high culture, and placed in amongst real life. This is the result of a most improbable social project that has come to embrace all of Venezuelan society. 250,000 children and young adults are currently playing a musical instrument, and by 2010 these numbers will have doubled. It’s an astonishing development brought about by one person, first and foremost: José Antonio Abreu.
José Antonio Abreu is a conductor, composer and economist. 30 years ago he developed the idea of combining social work with classical music, in order to offer children from poor neighbourhoods an alternative to life on the streets. More than five million people live in the impromptu neighbourhoods of Caracas alone, half of whom are children. The settlers in these illegal suburbs have left their mark on the cityscape, and reflect the social reality: behind the glass palaces and banks, shacks made of red brick and boards crowd the slopes as far as the eye can see. Everyday life in the ‘barrios’ is marked by violence in the streets, corrupt police and gang warfare. Only a few find their way out of these circumstances: work is hard to come by even with vocational training, and the public schools do not adequately prepare students for university entrance exams. These structures create a system of poverty, social exclusion and poor prospects.
