News Release

EDMUNDSTON (GNB) – The fifth and newest Sistema New Brunswick site will operate out of Cité des Jeunes A.-M.-Sormany in Edmundston thanks to financial support from the provincial government.

“Sistema New Brunswick is a proven program, designed to inspire children and youth to achieve their full potential and to acquire the values they need to grow and have a positive impact on society,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Francine Landry. “The program in Edmundston will start in September with 25 children and will grow over the next four years to be able to accommodate 60 children at a time.”

Landry attended the announcement on behalf of Health Minister Victor Boudreau, who is also minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation.

Sistema New Brunswick is a free after-school music program launched in 2009 by the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. It currently provides its three-hour per day program to almost 600 children in Moncton, Saint John, Richibucto and the Tobique First Nation.

The Edmundston program will operate in French under the direction of centre director Monica Dubé. It will include children from three schools, Notre-Dame and Carrefour de la Jeunesse in the Francophone Nord-Ouest school district and St. Mary’s Academy in the Anglophone West School District.

Ken MacLeod, CEO of the orchestra and founder of Sistema NB, praised local leaders for their desire and determination to bring the program to the community.

“Over the past two years, community leaders here have been relentless,” MacLeod said. “They have been on a mission, really, to provide opportunity for children who otherwise might be left out, and to engage them in music and the orchestra as a tool to build focus and teamwork as well as the confidence and self-esteem that comes from achievement.”

The City of Edmundston, local service clubs, and individuals have contributed financially to the four-year plan to develop Sistema NB in Edmundston.

El Sistema started with 11 kids in a parking garage in Venezuela and is now a global movement. In 2009, the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra partnered with El Sistema, in Venezuela, completed a fact-finding tour of the South American country, completed a one-year prototype program in New Brunswick and adopted a further plan to expand and replicate the program throughout the province. Sistema New Brunswick is now a recognized leader in Canada, and internationally, and was honored in March with the Prime Minister’s Award for Social Innovation.