Venezuela’s El Sistema, the revolutionary music education program for children from low-income families, is the subject of a new book by U.S. author Tricia Tunstall entitled Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music.
According to an article by the Los Angeles Times, the book, released last week by W. W. Norton, “weaves together several interrelated stories. It chronicles the origins and growth of Venezuela’s acclaimed El Sistema national music education program (which has trained about 400,000 children, many among Venezuela’s poorest), profiles its charismatic founder-leader, José Antonio Abreu, and analyzes the program’s growing international
