Abstract:
This final project is designed to explore and describe the emerging international field of
orchestral music education programs inspired by Venezuela’s “El Sistema.” El Sistema is the
nickname for a publically funded social and community development program that uses the
collective practice of music to affect social change. The program model is reinvigorating and
diversifying the fields of orchestral music and music education, while also fighting poverty
through access to the arts. This study aims to map the international network of programs
inspired by El Sistema through information collected from a literature review, qualitative
questionnaires for emerging programs, and semi-structured interviews with leaders from the
global Sistema movement. The data collected for the project is used to map the emerging field
of El Sistema inspired programs and to conduct a needs assessment for international support
structures serving the field.