Three decades ago, visionary Venezuelan musician and politician José Antonio Abreu founded El Sistema, a national system of music education designed as a model for social improvement. Today, some 265,000 Venezuelan children and young people are involved in choirs and orchestras around the country, and El Sistema is exporting some of the world’s finest musicians.

El Sistema takes us from the barrios of Caracas and Maracay to the concert hall of the Lucerne Festival, following the lives of children who have found the way to a better future through the model of the symphony orchestra.
This lyrical and moving documentary shows us young children and their families in their home environments. They speak of their everyday hopes and fears: of gang warfare and gunfire, drugs and violence, and the dream of a better life through education and music.

“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

More information & trailer

A production of EuroArts Music Production in co-production with ARTE France, NHK, SF

El Sistema Website