Our Story

In the mid-1970s, conductor José Antonio Abreu formed an orchestra with a group of children in Venezuela with the aim of group music study, changing the musical education system and creating a new movement that would be a source of income for the members of the orchestra. Thus El Sistema social program in Venezuela was created, which turned poor children away from the streets and crime by integrating them into musical ensembles, giving them new experiences and upgrading their lives as a whole.

Inspired by the pioneering educational approach of El Sistema, El Sistema Greece started in 2016 to offer free music lessons to children who were in refugee centers in Attica. In March 2018 El Sistema Greece became an official member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees participating in the With Refugees campaign and in May the program was presented at the ClassicalNEXT Project Pitch in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In October of the same year, El Sistema Greece was established as an autonomous NGO with the Venezuelan El Sistema (Fundamusical Simon Bolivar) and Sistema Europe by its side. Today, five years later, adapted to the needs of Greek reality, it continues its activities by offering free music lessons in various parts of Athens and Corinth -with refugee centers among them- independently or in collaboration with other organizations.

The El Sistema Greece program started in Greece in August 2016 with the joint effort of Impact Hub Athens and Anis Barnat in order to support the socially weaker children through music. As part of its joint collaboration, the El Sistema Greece Youth Orchestra was founded in Greece in October 2017. In 2018, the parties jointly decided to continue their contribution to the above purpose through two separate structures. Anis Barnat created the Non-Profit Company “El Sistema Greece” and Impact Hub Athens created an Art Community that uses programs and activities inspired by the methodology, practice and approach of “El Sistema”. In this way, each party recognizes the valuable contribution of the other party and at the same time jointly preserves the heritage created by the two years of El Sistema’s presence in Greece.