Chicago Sun-Times

‘ El Maestro’ founded Venezuelan orchestra

JOSE ANTONIO ABREU | 1939- 2018

- BY JOSHUA GOODMAN

CARACAS, Venezuela — Jose Antonio Abreu, the Venezuelan government economist turned musical educator who created a network of youth orchestras that has been replicated in dozens of countries around the world, died Saturday. He was 78.

His death was announced by the newspaper El Universal, where his brother Jesus Abreu is president. No cause was given, but Mr. Abreu had been known to be battling several illnesses ever since he retired from El Sistema, as the musical education program is known, a few years ago.

Mr. Abreu was the teacher to generation­s of Venezuelan classical music performers. His most famous protege, Gustavo Dudamel, musical director of the LosAngeles Philharmon­ic, tweeted a picture of the two Saturday dedicated to Mr. Abreu “with devoted love and eternal gratitude.”

President Nicolas Maduro also mourned the loss.

“The Venezuelan people that you so loved today are crying for you Maestro,” Maduro said in a message posted on social media.

Born in the western city of Valera in 1939, El Maestro, as Mr. Abreu was almost universall­y known in Venezuela, studied music from an early age. But he initially put his artistic aspiration­s on hold to become an economist, teaching at two universiti­es in Caracas, and later entering politics.

Well into his 30s in 1975, he formed a small orchestra of a dozen young musicians that would become the seed for El Sistema. Four decades later, the government- financed program claims to currently put 1 million Venezuelan children in contact with classical music through a network of hundreds of youth choirs, orchestras and music centers spread across the country.

Internatio­nally, its teaching model has spread tomore than 60 countries, while its marquee Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra is a fixture in top- flight concert halls from New York to London.

But more recently, the sterling reputation­s of the institutio­n — and Mr. Abreu — have taken a hit as a result of the program’s close ties to Maduro, whose socialist administra­tion has been accused of underminin­g Venezuela’s democracy.

The recent book “El Sistema: Orchestrat­ing Venezuela’s Youth” by British musicologi­st Geoffrey Baker described Mr. Abreu as a politicall­y cunning, autocratic and vengeful visionary as much feared as loved. The book also faulted El Sistema for fostering a culture of toplevel corruption, favoritism and improper sexual relations between teachers and pupils.

An Associated Press investigat­ion last year found that El Sistema had for more than a decade claimed Mr. Abreu held a doctorate in petroleum economics from the University of Pennsylvan­ia. The Ivy League school had no record of Abreu ever attending, and his brother Jesus Abreu later confirmed to AP that the doctorate did not exist. He said it had been incorrectl­y listed on the El Sistema website as a result of an administra­tive error.

 ?? OLZA/ AP | DANIEL OCHOA DE ?? Jose Antonio Abreu founded what became the El Sistema orchestra system in 1975.
OLZA/ AP | DANIEL OCHOA DE Jose Antonio Abreu founded what became the El Sistema orchestra system in 1975.

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