El Sistema (The System), officially National Network of Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela is a publicly financed, voluntary sector music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu. The curriculum is built on the belief that the collective playing of music, especially orchestral and choral, fosters discipline, teamwork, and social integration.
The program has a reputation for rescuing young people in impoverished circumstances, directing them away from lives of drug abuse and crime, into which they would possibly otherwise be drawn. El Sistema has inspired similar programmes in more than 60 other countries.
