Globalizing El Sistema: Exploring the growth and development of El Sistema inspired programs around the world

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.