Sonoma Index-Tribune- 10 February 2020

Forty-five years ago, the gem of an idea for a youth music program took hold in Venezuela. It speard internationally and eventually found its way to the campus of El Verano Elementary School in Sonoma Valley.

In the early 1970’s. Jose Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan government and conservatory-trained musician, had noticed that most key opportunities in the country’s few orchestras went to European or American musicians. Disturbed, he set out to do something about that. In 1975, Abreu procured 50 music stands along with sheet music and staged them in an empty parking lot in the capital city of Caracas. He spread the word—and waited. Eleven musicians showed up. The youngest took out his violin and began to play. Others followed. READ MORE