Thirty-seven years ago in a parking garage in Caracas, Venezuela, Dr. José Antonio Abreu gathered together 11 children to play music. El Sistema was born. This program now teaches music to 400,000 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. Tricia Tunstall discusses her new book Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music; Jamie Bernstein screens her documentary project El Sistema USA!; and Stanford Thompson of the celebrated El Sistema-inspired Play On, Philly! program shows how the transformative power of music is being developed here in Philadelphia.

Concert to follow.