Jose Antonio Abreu is the charismatic founder of a youth orchestra system that has transformed thousands of kids’ lives in Venezuela. Here he shares his amazing story and unveils a TED Prize wish that could have a big impact in the US and beyond.

The conductor Claudio Abbado has called it “the most important project in the music world in our time.” But only recently, as the meteoric rise of the conductor Gustavo Dudamel aroused curiosity about the unique environment within which his talents blossomed, has it attracted the widespread attention of music lovers.

It’s not over ‘til the fat baby sings. Scottish Opera is attempting to reach beyond its normal audiences of middle-aged music buffs by launching a series of concerts aimed at infants, aged between six and 18 months.

Classical music as a tool for punishing youth ignites debate in U.K.
News that a school in Derby, Britain, was piping classical music into a special detention area set up to punish troublesome students has ignited a debate about the use of the pieces.

If you want music to sharpen your senses, boost your ability to focus and perhaps even improve your memory, you need to be a participant, not just a listener.

It fuses intricate classical music compositions and the simplistic iconography of a PlayStation. It allows the most unmusical people to play Beethoven in minutes. It has caused a revolution in how music is taught across Europe. And now it is making waves in Scottish schools.

I have been watching, in amazement, the cartoon Wonder Pets on the Nickelodeon children’s television channel. Demonstrating the benefits of teamwork, Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle, and Ming-Ming the duckling (Ming-Ming is everyone’s favorite, and mine, too) save an animal in trouble—sometimes a dolphin, sometimes a monkey, sometimes a bee—in every episode, and feats of great collaboration are always required.

It’s a scenario every parent of a teenager will recognise: the bedroom door closes, a volume dial is rotated clockwise and loud music fills the room for hours at a time..

Young Asian musicians are increasingly choosing Poland as the place to perfect their skills and absorb the atmosphere in the native land of the renowned 19th-century romantic composer Frederic Chopin, who is adored in Asia.
 

The Harvard musicologist Thomas Kelly teaches a popular course, First Nights, where students study the first nights of five different pieces of music – their history, cultural context, composition, libretto, rehearsals and how the audience reacted.