El Sistema Comes to the USA: Playing the Mambo and Other Transformations

"I know it sounds impossible, but El Sistema is for real. El Sistema's founder, the visionary musician and economist Jose Antonio Abreu, has said, "If you put a violin in a child's hands, that child will never hold a gun." It is a profound idea: to use an orchestra as a means of personal growth for children in impoverished environments—which in turn brings transformation to the community as a whole. Yes, a very big idea. And now this idea is spreading around the world. Every month, it seems, we hear about another nucleo starting up in another country."