Founder of El Sistema, Maestro José Abreu, 78

Tributes have been paid following the death of José Abreu, founder of a renowned music programme that has changed the lives of thousands of children.

Abreu founded El Sistema, providing free music education in Venezuela’s shanty towns and poor neighbourhoods.

The programme has inspired similar systems in other countries.

Venezuela announced three days of national mourning for Abreu, who died on Saturday aged 78.

Abreu began the music project in 1975 and counted renowned Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel among his students.

Born in Valera in 1939, music ran deep in his family – his grandfather had founded an orchestra in Italy and his grandmother was a passionate opera fan.

Abreu’s mother played piano, and his father the guitar.

He pursued music studies but moved to Caracas to take a degree in economics.

He worked as an economist for the government and was elected as a substitute member of parliament in the 1960s.

Abreu said he became frustrated that Venezuela had only one orchestra.

“That’s when the idea was born to organise a system to have at least one great Venezuelan-born orchestra,” he recalled.

He founded El Sistema in 1975, in a garage, with just 11 musicians.

“They were so determined and so enthusiastic that I understood from that very moment that success was guaranteed,” he remembered.

The network eventually grew to 300 choirs and orchestras.

It has been echoed in a variety of other countries around the world, with particular success in Spain and Scotland.

One of the programme’s founding principles was to combat poverty through music, teaching classical works in the poorest areas of the country.

Children are taught from the age of three to play music during free afternoon classes, with a focus on orchestral practice.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on state television that the country was “deeply moved by the departure … of Maestro Abreu”.

Sir Simon Rattle, director of the Berlin Philharmonic, was a strong supporter of Abreu and El Sistema.

Speaking in 2010 he said: “What Abreu and El Sistema have done is to bring hope, through music, to hundreds of thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost.”

El Sistema received many awards, most notably from the Royal Swedish Academy and Unesco.

José Abreu began the music project in 1975.