The National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela, familiar to its participants as El Sistema, is a music education program that was founded in 1975, and it has had a profound impact on Venezuelan music, perhaps most famously in starting the career of Gustavo Dudamel. Not only was he a product of El Sistema as a violin student and later as a conductor, but his Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra began as a youth orchestra in the program, paving the way for other ensembles that mature with their young players. This album of popular dance works, movements from symphonies and string quartets, and other works celebrates El Sistema's 40th anniversary, and Deutsche Grammophon has selected tracks from previous albums to demonstrate the intensity and brilliance of Dudamel, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and the Simón Bolívar String Quartet. This CD is a good sampler for listeners who are new to their music-making, but collectors who have followed them since the mid-2000s will likely already have these recordings.
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