Founder of the El Sistema music project that inspired Big Noise in Scotland

Born: May 7, 1939;

Died: March 24, 2018

JOSE Abreu, who has died aged 78, was a conductor, pianist, economist, educator and activist who founded El Sistema, the renowned music programme that has transformed the lives of thousands of children from poor neighbourhoods, including many in Scotland.

The programme began in the 1970s with the aim of combating poverty in Venezuela by providing free music education in the country's shantytowns and poor communities; children are taught from a young age to play music during free classes and many of the pupils have gone on to music careers.

The programme enjoyed huge success in Abreu's home country, growing from a small start in a garage with just 11 pupils to around 300 choirs and orchestras. Abreu, who was a musician and economist, was convinced that music could transform lives and values in the way that other projects had failed to do.

The project came to Scotland in 2008 as the Big Noise in Raploch in Stirling and over the last ten years some 3,500 Scottish children are estimated to have taken part as it has expanded to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee. Abreu himself visited Stirling in 2012 to celebrate the success of the scheme in Scotland.

Abreu José Antonio Abreu Anselmi was born in the small city of Valera on May 7, 1939. It was a musical family - his grandfather founded an orchestra in Italy and both his parents played instruments - his father the guitar, his mother the piano.

Abreu's first passion was also music and as a teenager he studied piano, organ and harpsichord at the Caracas Musical Declamation Academy in 1957. It was clear that he was extremely talented, but he needed to help support his family so studied for a degree in economics.

His career was varied. He was professor of economics and law at Simon Bolivar University and for a time was also involved in Venezuelan politics as a member of the Congress of Venezuela in the 1960s.

The idea for El Sistema first came to him in the early 1970s when he observed that music education in Venezuela did not include orchestras for young people. "I could see, in the few existing music schools at that time," he said, "that the children who were participating in orchestras developed with a much more humane perception of their role within society. They had a completely different set of values."

He went on to found El Sistema in a garage with 11 musicians and was convinced early on that it would be a success. In those early days, he told the first pupils that they were creating the beginning of a network that would eventually turn Venezuela into a musical power by rescuing children from low-income backgrounds.

The programme has been accused by some of a lack of rigorous evaluation to quantify its claims of social transformation but it has enjoyed notable success in Scotland. Research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Education Scotland and the Scottish Government have all found that Big Noise - as the project is known in Scotland - has a positive impact on children's lives.

Big Noise currently works with around 2,500 children in Scotland - in Raploch, Stirling, where it began ten years ago as well as Govanhill in Glasgow, Torry in Aberdeen and Douglas in Dundee. There are also plans to expand to other parts of Scotland over the next ten years.

Abreu visited Raploch with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in 2012 which led to 50 children from the youth orchestra of Raploch visiting Caracas to play a concert to celebrate Scotland's links with El Sistema. Abreu was particularly proud of the effects that El Sistema had in Scotland. An aide to Abreu said: "He believes no country has done it as well as it has been done in Scotland. He is thrilled by it. Raploch is very close to his heart."

Abreu retired from El Sistema several years ago, but the work was continued by several of his proteges including the most famous, Gustavo Dudamel, musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

El Sistema was promoted and supported by the socialist government of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. The current president Nicolas Maduro said the death of Abreu was a heavy loss. "The Venezuelan people that you so loved today are crying for you maestro," he said. "We are comforted by knowing that your legacy will remain alive in the hands and voices of the children of the youth orchestras."

Abreu's links to Maduro and the Venzuelan government have attracted some controversy. An investigation by the Associated Press in 2017 also found that El Sistema had for more than a decade claimed Abreu held a doctorate in petroleum economics from the University of Pennsylvania. The school said it had no record of Abreu ever attending, and the claim was removed from the El Sistema website.