Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra 

The 2009 TED Prize winner, Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, founded El Sistema (“the system”) in 1975 to help Venezuelan kids take part in classical music. After 30 years (and 10 political administrations), El Sistema is a nationwide organization of 102 youth orchestras, 55 children’s orchestras, and 270 music centers — and close to 250,000 young musicians.

There is a simple concept behind Abreu’s work: for him an orchestra is first and foremost about together­ness, a place where children learn to listen to each other and to respect one another.

“Music has to be recognized as an … agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community and to express sublime feelings.”
José Antonio Abreu

Several El Sistema students have gone on to major international careers, including Gustavo Dudamel, soon to be the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the bassist Edicson Ruiz, who at 17 became the youngest musician ever to join the Berlin Philharmonic. The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra (Sinfónica Juvenil Teresa Carreño) is the national high school age youth orchestra of El Sistema.

Take 17 minutes of your life and look at this outstanding video with the presentation of Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra.