Arturo Márquez Navarro (born 20 December 1950) is a Mexican composer of orchestral music who uses musical forms and styles of his native Mexico and incorporates them into his compositions.

Márquez’s father was a mariachi musician in Mexico and later in Los Angeles and his paternal grandfather was a Mexican folk musician in the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Because of Márquez’s father and grandfather, he was exposed to several musical styles in his childhood, particularly Mexican “salon music” which would be the impetus for his later musical repertoire.

In 1975, Venezuelan musician Jose Antonio Abreu created a network of music education programs for children. It became known as El Sistema. As the director of El Sistema, Abreu was able to gain government support for the network, and turn it into one of Venezuela’s model programs.

El Sistema now includes about 300 community schools. The network has given children in poor neighborhoods a chance to study classical music. It has produced world-famous musicians, including the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel.

Presently, 980,000 children and young musicians are currently part of its programs throughout Venezuela.

Read about “El Sistema” here, and how music has changed the lives of thousands of children in Venezuela, and beyond: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Sistema

Click below to listen to a performance by l’Orchestre des jeunes du Venezuela of Danzon n°2 de Arturo Marquez.

Obtained from https://www.ccvichapel.org/post/danzon-n-2-de-arturo-marquez-y-el-sistema