“Music offers this exquisite balance of the physical, the emotional, the intellectual, the social, and the spiritual– five very important aspects of human existence,” argues Mark Churchill, dean emeritus of the New England Conservatory and key player in bringing the El Sistema music approach to the United States. Founded in 1975 in Venezuela as a way to allow poor children to play instruments and be part of an orchestra, El Sistema aims to teach children important lessons about discipline, cooperation, and esteem through music education. Standing as an especially bright beacon of successful implementation of El Sistema is the Conservatory Lab Charter School of Brighton, Massachusetts.

Receiving a great deal of attention from the press, Conservatory Lab, which opened its doors in 1999, includes two and a half hours per day of El Sistema music education. Students stay at school from 8:15 AM to 5:15 PM…and love it. An article in the Christian Science Monitor quotes students as saying “Music is my life…it livens up every day” and “It’s not only a school, it’s a family.”

“In El Sistema they told us: they’re musicians from the start,” says David Malek, Co-Director of the El Sistema program at Conservatory Lab, in a video feature by the Boston Globe. “El Sistema is a program that seeks social change through the power of music…It’s not even about the importance of playing the right note at the right time–of course those things are important–but it’s…it’s about caring deeply. To care deeply about something is the entry point.” Malek argues that caring about the music leads the children to care about each other as well; El Sistema founder Jose Antonio Abreu believed: “The orchestra is the only group that comes together with the sole purpose of agreement.”

Conservatory Lab gives these underprivileged students the priceless opportunity to learn to play musical instruments and be members of an ensemble. While instilling discipline in the children, its El Sistema program also teaches students self-confidence. “Music is the great equalizer,” argues an article in the Boston Globe featuring Conservatory Lab instructor Adrian Anantawan, who plays the violin despite having only one hand. “Who is to say [music is] going to be limited to those who are cognitively or physically ‘able’ in big quotation marks,” asks Anantawan, who has performed at the White House, the Olympics, and Carnegie Hall and believes music is “an inherent civil right.”

The success of Conservatory Lab shows how charter schools can be an invaluable alternative for students who otherwise would not have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument or be part of an orchestra. And in addition to learning their Mozart and Beethoven, students at Conservatory Lab participate in cross-disciplinary arts projects, like this educational parody the students created of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” all about the science of snakes, entitled “Snakes are Born This Way” and featured in the Huffington Post.

“There is a saying in Venezuela,” says Malek, “If you only know five notes, teach someone who only knows three notes.” Conservatory Lab and its teachers continue to spread the joys and benefits of music one student at a time. More information on the school and the El Sistema program can be found on Conservatory Lab’s official website.