Wednesday, January 07, 2009

You can't beat "El Sistema"

Richard Morrison writes about the lessons we can learn from the example of José Antonio Abreu, and his Venezualan musical project - "El Sistema": in The Times:

"The secret of the Simón Bolívar Orchestra's appeal doesn't lie in the deprived backgrounds of its members, or the Latinate exuberance of the playing. It lies in the fact that its players, and thousands of other kids back in Venezuela, voluntarily practise their instruments for 20 hours each week. And that's on top of their regular schooling."