In Changing Lives, the first book to chart the amazing story of El Sistema, writer and music educator Tricia Tunstall delves deeply into what makes this program so transformative. She argues that El Sistema—which provides instruments, musical instruction, and rehearsal space free of charge for nearly 400,000 Venezuelan children, the great majority of them from poor families—is one of the most significant social and artistic developments of the twenty-first century.
In her travels to Venezuela and around the United States, and in conversations with Abreu and Dudamel, Tunstall explores the philosophy behind the program, including Abreu’s deeply held beliefs that “culture for the poor cannot be a poor culture” and that a child who picks up an instrument will not pick up a gun. More than anything, she writes, “in all the ensembles of the Sistema, artistry is inseparable from the spirit of collective endeavor.” The children Tunstall speaks with are enveloped by the music, and their enthusiasm for long practices, their self-confidence, and their readiness to help one another learn demonstrate how El Sistema represents a way of life, one focused intensively on creating community.