El Sistema, the world-famous Venezuelan music education project, is marking its 40th anniversary this year amid worries that increasing social unrest and worsening relations with the U.S. could hurt its mission to keep 400,000 at-risk children on the straight-and-narrow.
But El Sistema-inspired initiatives in the United States have proliferated. El Sistema USA, an umbrella organization, lists 113 different programs in 33 states, up from 50 programs in 2011. Among the most high-profile is the Harmony Program, an after-school program which trains more than 200 disadvantaged kids in neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Long Island. more
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