Aesthetics of Generosity: El Sistema, Music Education, and Social Change

In 1975, Jose Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan economist, musician, and reformer, founded El Sistema, a revolutionary music education and social action project that has changed the lives of thousands of his country's most vulnerable youth. Its social and artistic achievements are spellbinding. In 2009, Maestro Abreu was awarded the TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Prize and was granted a wish: to identify "gifted young musicians, passionate about their art and social justice," who would take his vision to the world. Aesthetics of Generosity chronicles a Sistema Fellow's own journey into the heart of El Sistema as he uncovers how music can change lives for the better. Includes 16 black-and-white photographs.