Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu

Born in Valera, Venezuela in 1930, Dr Jose Antonio Abreu pursued a dual career in music and economics. 30 years ago the conductor, composer and economist Jose Antonio Abreu had the vision of combining social work and classical music. Abreu's goal was to tear down elitist structures in music education and make music a fundamental right of all the country's children.
In 1975, he began the work for which founding the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Youth Orchestra. His aims are “ the majority children and juveniles belong to the group, that are most vulnerable and excluded in all of Venezuelan Society.” Participating in the Orchestral movement has made it possible for them to set up new goals plans projects, and dreams, and at the same time it is a way of creating meaning and helping them in their day-to-day struggle for better conditions of life through the variety of opportunities that the orchestral movement offers them.
For archiving a unique cultural renaissance, bringing the joys of music to countless disadvantaged children and communities.
Perhaps the most remarkable element about this orchestral System is that it is explicitly oriented towards lower-income social strata. It has been described as "a social movement of massive dimensions, that works using music as the instrument that makes the social integration of different Venezuelan population groups possible and supports the strata with low income."
National Symphony Youth Orchestra, which has given hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan children of low-income families access to music and education that improves their lives. All of this is help to create a positive self-image, a strong self-esteem a sense of confidence. And his efforts have inspired similar initiatives in other Latin American countries."
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