News Release

MONCTON (CNB) – The provincial government is making an investment to help Sistema New Brunswick expand its presence in Moncton and reach three other communities during the next four years.

The announcement was made by Business New Brunswick Minister Victor Boudreau, who is also minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation; Local Government Minister Chris Collins; and Ken MacLeod, president, New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.

“Based on the success of its prototype program, Sistema New Brunswick is a wonderful program designed to inspire children and youth to achieve their full potential and to acquire the values they need to grow and to have a positive impact in society,” said Boudreau.

Sistema New Brunswick, under the direction of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, will expand the Moncton centre and plans to run four children's orchestra centres by 2014, operating in both official languages and involving more than 500 children. The provincial government is investing $1.84 million in support.

Modelled on an internationally renowned Venezuelan program, Sistema New Brunswick is designed to influence children through music, to foster positive values such as discipline, teamwork, confidence and self-esteem, and to inspire in children a sense of hope, joy and the aspiration to succeed.

"Creating opportunities for children through music is what Sistema New Brunswick is doing; it becomes an engine for human development," said MacLeod. "What a difference this will make for those children who are so often left out."

In 2009, the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra launched Sistema New Brunswick, opening its first children's orchestra centre at Beaverbrook School in Moncton.

Fifty students from Beaverbrook, Birchmount, Queen Elizabeth and Edith Cavell schools took part in the after-school program, learning how to play music and gain other social skills in a co-operative, nurturing environment where personal qualities and achievement matter as much as the quality of the music.