Caracas Chronicles

Juan Cristobal says: – Loyal reader Kolya gave us a heads-up a few weeks ago and I felt it was worth spreading the word: one of the recipients of this year’s TED award is our compatriota, Jose Antonio Abreu.

Now, if you’re a techno-geek, you know all about the TED award. If you’re not, but you have friends who are (like me), you’re vaguely familiar with it. Basically, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It’s a very exclusive Annual Conference where three people are honored. They get $100,000 and are granted “one wish to change the world.”

The honorees usually give lectures that are broad-ranging, visionary and revealing. Check out Bill Clinton’s conference here or Bono’s here. In fact, all of the conferences are available online, and they are all very interesting.

Abreu, an economist and a musician, is a man who has almost single-handedly committed himself to one project, to one idea: bringing classical musical education to hundreds of thousands of poor Venezuelan children. His star pupil is Gustavo Dudamel, current music director for the Los Angeles Philarmonic and a musical superstar.

Abreu has, literally, changed thousands of lives for the better. How many of our paisanos can we say that about?

Bravo, maestro. Well deserved.