21/06/2008
Orchestral manoeuvre to give poorest children hope
Published by The Independent
By Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent

Children as young as four from England's toughest estates will perform orchestral concerts under plans inspired by a Venezuelan programme which has transformed the lives of youngsters in that country's most violent slums.

The El Sistema initiative has used a network of orchestras to help 500,000 impoverished children avoid crime and drug abuse over the past 33 years. Now ministers hope a similar scheme can use music to stop youngsters from England's most deprived homes going off the rails.

Pupils as young as four will be in the £3m, three-year "In Harmony" programme, led by the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. It will begin in three or four pilot areas within months. The project is based on the El Sistema initiative in Venezuela, which resulted in the formation of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, and has been credited not just with transforming the lives of street children but the social cohesion of the country.
 
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http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/orchestral-manoeuvre-to-give-poorest-children-hope-851588.html

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