“How I was inspired by the children of Venezuela
Julian Lloyd Webber on the miraculous Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra
In Harmony is up and running – and we have an impoverished South American nation to thank.The community-based project I am chairing, which uses music to change the lives of young people, had its genesis in August last year. In the midst of England’s school holidays, when an uncomfortable number of our children seemed even more disaffected than usual, the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra arrived from Venezuela to deliver performances at the Edinburgh Festival and the Proms in London that were, quite simply, miraculous.
Their performance was the result of El Sistema – the visionary programme introduced to Venezuela 30 years ago by José Abreu, an economist and classical music enthusiast who believed that every poverty-stricken child should have free access to classical music and that their lives would be transformed as a result…” Fuente original