Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
North Carolina
Primary Theme: Education & Human Development
El Sistema is an evidence-based system of music education for social change. Founded in Venezuela in 1975, El Sistema and its worldwide replications create an environment of opportunity through the collective practice of orchestral playing and choral singing as a model for personal, social, academic and musical development. Through a focus on low-income youth, these programs serve a long-term agenda to combat systemic and intergenerational poverty. This movement is present in the U.S. and locally within the Research Triangle of North Carolina. El Sistema USA (ESUSA) has 160 nonprofit members and affiliates. Kidznotes, an El Sistema-inspired program launched in 2010 in East Durham, serves 500 students annually in grades K-10 throughout Durham and Southeast Raleigh.