Rich nations copy Venezuela's anti-gang music schools

By Jorge Silva and Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's youth orchestras and choirs have helped thousands of children resist thug life in some of South America's most violent slums, and now wealthy countries are lining up to emulate the system.

Last year, the Los Angeles Philharmonic named Venezuelan conductor and the classical music world's brightest star Gustavo Dudamel, 27, as its next director, shining a spotlight on the remarkable network of music schools in which he was trained.

About 300,000 Venezuelan children, many from deprived city barrios, others from distant Amazon towns, now choose violins and trombones over guns and drugs, proving Mozart and Berlioz can be as fresh as rap beats even to 21st century youths.

"This is seen as the cutting edge project of classical music," Dudamel said. "To give children a future mixed with the sensitivity that music offers is unique."

Dudamel, who grew up in a provincial city and started playing the violin at 10, joined the music school system a few years later to learn to conduct and at 18 he was already the national youth orchestra's music director.

Governments from Los Angeles to Scotland may not much like President Hugo Chavez's brand of Cuba-inspired socialism but they will soon try to replicate Venezuela's achievements on their own streets.

The music centre in the Carapita neighbourhood of Caracas is a prime example of the Venezuelan program at work in a city where each week dozens die in gunfights between rival gangs.

The music classes are taught in a crowded community centre amid a maze of narrow alleys and precariously built red block houses. About 200 children gather for four hours of music and choral practice six days a week in what Venezuelans simply call "The System."