El Sistema

El Sistema is a publicly financed voluntary sector music education program in Venezuela, founded in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician and activist José Antonio Abreu which later adopted the motto Social Action for Music. To say it another way, it is ""free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children,"" as quoted from the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. By 2015, according to official figures, El Sistema consisted of over 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The program provides 4 hours of musical training and rehearsal per week day after school, as well as work on the weekends.