AMP co-founder and executive director Dantes with Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu in Caracas, Venezuela in 2010.

The Atlanta Music Project mourns the loss of Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema, Venezuela’s internationally renowned system of youth orchestras and choirs, which has brought music education to over three million children in Venezuela since 1970. Maestro Abreu was awarded the TED Prize in 2009, which led to the establishment of the Sistema Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory, which trained young musicians to lead El Sistema-inspired programs in the United States and beyond. Both AMP’s co-founder/executive director Dantes Rameau  and AMPlify’s co-founder/director Aisha Moody are graduates of the fellowship program, and thus the Atlanta Music Project owes its existence to this man. Rest In Peace Maestro. You can watch Maestro Abreu’s brilliant TED Talk below: