Welcome to Sistema Australia!

In 1975 Jose Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan economist and musician embarked on a journey that would take the youth of Venezuela from the ravages of poverty to a joyous musically talented and hopeful community of young people who began to believe in themselves.

He introduced Venezuelan children of all ages and circumstance to wonderful orchestral and choral music programmes – El Sistema – "The System" was born – but it is music for all children regardless of ability or inability. Venezuela is now not only the most exciting place in the world from the perspective of classical music but a society in transformation – social action through music.

Influenced by this tremendous success and the creation of such a wonderful music system, a group of Australian musicians, music educators and interested others have decided to create an Australian version – to provide a joyous music education programme for Australian children – focusing primarily on those less fortunate communities in Australia but eventually extending to all Australian children who want to learn and play music.

Donations to Sistema Australia's Music Programs

You are invited to become a supporter of the Crashendo! music programs. By making a tax deductible donation to the Australia Cultural Fund, operated by the Australia Business Arts Foundation – it will provide essential financial support for Sistema Australia's after-school music program for children during 2012.

The Australia Cultural Fund was established to encourage people to donate to the arts and enable not-for-profit groups like Sistema Australia to benefit from this generosity. All donations are made to the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) which considers donor preferences when allocating grants. In the past six years more than $6 million has been donated to AbaF and granted in full to more than 300 artists and cultural organisations – it is a great program for groups like ours.

The Sistema Australia program, "Crashendo!" is free for all the children who attend it – currently it is being offered at Laverton P-12 College in Melbourne as an after school program for thirty children, which will expand to 60 in 2012. Other programs across Australia are being developed, modeled on the Laverton program. Please give as much you think our program is worth – to the children it is invaluable, and every dollar counts.

All donations over $5 are tax deductible. You can download the donation form, fill it out and post it in, or you can use the online service to donate immediately. Please visit http://www.abaf.org.au/donors/artist-projects/sistema-australia-crashendo.html