A teacher at the Bermuda School of Music has won a place on a fellowship dedicated to changing the world through music.Violin teacher David France said he’d like to introduce Bermuda to the El Sistema programme after he becomes one of just 30 educators in the world qualified in it.“I’ve lived in Bermuda for seven years, and I’ve got my whole life invested here, so starting a national El Sistema model here on the Island instantly came to mind when I found out I’d been accepted,” Mr France said.Begun in Venezuela, El Sistema is an intensive, communal system teaches music to children in poor communities around the world.He has been chosen for an exclusive training programme, starting in August at Boston’s New England Conservatory. Mr France will join the third class of the El Sistema’s Abreu Fellows Programme. Ten fellows are chosen from an international pool of applicants each year.“At the moment I’m not sure where I will take it,” Mr France said. “I’m from Boston, and I might settle back there. And my parents are from Nevis, so I thought I might try to take El Sistema there. But because this is a lifetime commitment, it can multiply and inspire others. I see my role as a catalyst.”Mr France has already caught international attention, as part of YouTube Symphony Orchestra the first ever online collaborative orchestra.He features in a documentary about the project, ‘Harmony: The Road to Carnegie Hall’.About six years ago, he said, “one of my colleagues at the Bermuda School of Music showed me a video on YouTube of an El Sistema youth symphony orchestra in Venezuela. I was amazed at their focus, the passion and the clarity. I was so inspired by what I was seeing. Someone later asked me what I was watching and I just said, That’s going to be my next job.”Interested to learn more, Mr France wrote to El Sistema USA in February and was asked to apply. Two interviews later, he was accepted.“El Sistema’s primary goal is social change,” he said. “In Venezuela, nearly 70 percent of the kids in El Sistema are from the slums, so to take them and train them into one of the best orchestras in the world, that alone is inspiring.”Mr France’s first semester will be spent studying in Boston, followed by two months studying El Sistema in Venezuela.“Then we come back to spend a month in an El Sistema programme in the US to see how it’s being brought in there,” he said. “After that, you go out and start a programme of your own.”As a leaving gift to Bermuda, he said: “I am hoping to inspire young string players with two young artist concerts next week.“The Bermuda School of Music has invited seven of the best young string players from around the world to perform here on the Island. I hope that the next generation will put down their weapons and take up musical instruments.”For details, see below for the school’s website.Useful web links: www.musicschool.bm, www.elsistemausa.org, www.harmonyfilm.com.