Sistema Fellows Program

Click here for our new blog about the Fellows.

2012-03-29 NEC President Tony Woodcock signs new friendship agreement with Venezuela's El Sistema. Read the press release.

Click here for the 2013-2014 application form. Please contact Virginia Hecker for more information.

2013-2014 Sistema Fellows Program at New England Conservatory

The Sistema Fellows Program is a professional training program designed for ten postgraduate musicians and music educators who are passionate about creating careers for themselves that connect music, youth, and social change. Past participants in the Program have gone on to guide the development of numerous El Sistema-inspired programs across the United States and beyond.

Founded in 1975, El Sistema is Venezuela's celebrated free youth orchestra and social action program that provides potentially life-changing experiences for several hundred thousand children annually in rural and urban communities across the country. El Sistema has also produced internationally successful musicians such as Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Orchestra. The success of El Sistema has generated excitement throughout the world, and many programs inspired by El Sistema have begun to emerge around the globe, including more than fifty in the US.

Between September and May, the Sistema Fellows engage in an intensive curriculum that includes leadership, communication, non-profit strategy, funding, operations, evaluation and assessment, and educational philosophy and policy. The learning is a combination of classroom seminars and experiential work in the field. In the fall semester, Fellows spend four weeks in residence at El Sistema-inspired programs of their choosing across the US. There is also a month-long residency in Venezuela in the spring semester. To put their learning into practice, Fellows are required to spend the subsequent year serving the emerging field of El Sistema-inspired initiatives.

Based at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the Sistema Fellows Program is tuition-free and includes a monthly stipend for living expenses. The program is limited to 10 participants each year. To learn more about the Program through the voices of the Fellows themselves, visit the Program’s blog.

Application deadline is February 8, 2013. Apply here.

Find information on making a gift to the Sistema Fellows Program at NEC.

2013-03-15