Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music Illustrated Edition

There have been several video documentaries on El sistema that highlight the performance skills and offer vignettes of daily life of its participants --  El Sistema: Music to Change Life , The Promise of Music , Tocar Y Luchar . This book is a strong complement to those documentaries. As of this date, there is nothing else available in English that gives this kind of information. It explains the history of the program, gives narrative detail about how it functions, and discusses its organizational culture. It is very much a flexible, fluid system that operates on the value that participation in music offers a person connection and meaning in his/her life. Music for social change in Venezuela contrasts with common U.S. justifications that music education is a culturally enriching side dish. The alternative framework of El sistema would give school districts extra pause in considering cuts their music programs.The book is written from the perspective of an American journalist/musician visiting various El sistema schools (or nucleos) in Venezuela. She interviews Dudamel, Abreu, and many Venezuelan music students and instructors. The latter part of the book describes efforts to build equivalent kinds of programs in the U.S. If you are already familiar with Dudamel and El sistema from documentaries and news stories, you may find the first chapter or two to be a somewhat redundant experience. Nevertheless they serve to introduce less familiar readers. If your interest in music education is a personal or professional passion, then I highly recommend this title. But be careful; it might incite you to revolution!

The news of El Sistema has drifted into the U.S. as a kind of dessert buffet--one amazingly sweet report after another. It has sounded too good to be true, and I hear many people respond that it is hyped or must be some new "flavor of the month." Changing Lives offers a full meal of El Sistema, so we can dine healthily on its history, its precepts and processes, its mysteries--it is full of factual protein, and a healthy serving of exotic fruits and substantive veggies. (Enough with the metaphor.) This book is a required reading for those who have some kind of interest in or opinion about El Sistema, so you can actually know what you are talking about. And you never had such a pleasurable required reading assignment--Tunstall writes beautifully, turning every part of the 35 year history into engaging stories full of vivid detail. The marvel of El Sistema seems even more marvelous after reading this beautiful book. And special thanks to the author for including the emergence of El Sistema in the U.S. in this history, giving us hope that the miracle from South America that redirected the lives of hundreds of thousands of at-risk kids can redirect the lives of kids in North America in the same way, and in the same expanding numbers. And this hope is already being realized. This was the most inspiring book I read in 2011. Like me, and thousands of others, you will believe that Jose Antonio Abreu deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and that Dudamel is every bit as splendid as you thought.

Often when I read a music review, I think- this could have written without attending the concert. The adjectives, positive and negative, run on without real thought, reflection, or insight to the substance of the music.This book was not a music review, but it could have made the same mistakes. It did not. It lived up perfectly to the excellence of its subject.It probed deep into the inner workings; the heart of El Sistema which is a movement of intense human interaction, strategic planning and relentless determination. The author took a deep subject and drove it deeper and richer- while telling story after story of real people in trouble, making substantive progress in a world set against them.The research and documentation are amazing. People, places, history, context- really well thought out and organized. Can you tell yet that I love El Sistema? I love this book too- my notes filled up every blank page in front and back. Read it and jump in !If you love El Sistema, run to the store right now. If you don't know about El Sistema, you run too. Let it sink in- the possibility that we have entered a new paradigm of character development and human potential through education that really works.Because of the Music.Glenn Thomas[...][...]

The story narrated in this book is breathtaking. How one man, Juan Antonio Abreu, and his dream of El Sistema, transformed Venezuela from a country whose professional orchestra employed no Venezuelans to a country where EVERY child has the right to study music with gifted teachers for as many years as they wish, to have an instrument to play, and the opportunity to play in musical groups of all sizes and talent. Now the country has several world-class orchestras of young people and even school children who are invited all over the world to play for sophisticated musical audiences and then treated to enthusiastic standing ovations and patrons shouting approval! These young musicians are proficient not only in all genres of European music, they are also proficient in Latin American music, both popular and classical. To hear and see (via YouTube) more than 200 talented young musicians all playing together enthusiastically and extremely articulately for a gifted conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, who is himself a product of El Sistema, is a grand testament to Abreu's dream and Venezuela's support for this transformative program.

I cannot praise Tricia Tunstalls work. It encompasses the very origins of El Sistema and Maestro Abreus vision and recounts experiences of seasoned Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra musicians as well as more recent students. Having travelled lots in Venezuela I am very aware of El Sistema and its very core principal of social inclusiveness. However, this book brought even more interest and happiness and I would urge anyone with a musical and / or social interest to make this work their introduction to the world of El sistema and you will emerge from your journey a better and happier human being.

Changing Lives describes a beautiful miracle happening right now. It clearly documents how it was conceived, born and is manifesting right now and shows once and for all how music elevates humanity. Very moving.

Highly informative and inspiring. Exceeded all my expectations. Every country in the world should follow Venezuela's example!

My daughters have been part of "El sistema" and Tricia Tunstall describes exactly how the power of music has changed the life of Venezuelan children.

驚きの連続です。クラッシック音楽が子どもを変え、社会を変革していくというこをは、かつて考えたこともなかったことでした。