NEC’s Mark Churchill has supplied the institutional glue to cement a close relationship between the conservatory and that miraculous program. Today some half million Venezuelan kids, from age three to 19, living below the poverty line, some of them even hearing impaired or severely handicapped, are — instead of joining gangs and dealing drugs — taking music lessons and playing in and conducting classical orchestras.

They’re also learning to teach music, make instruments, and run music programs. Lives are being changed — and saved.