'Music Changes Lives' is a groundbreaking four part observational documentary series about the power of music as an 'intervention' tool for positive change, extraordinary personal stories show how the simple act of learning to play an instrument can give children, who have no other real chance in life, a fresh start and a brighter future.

Our series focuses on the efforts of two Dublin primary schools; St Agnes in Crumlin and St. Ultan’s in Cherry Orchard to implement a music tuition programme in their schools.  We filmed with these schools over the course of the school year from September 2008 to June 2009.  Here in these designated schools for disadvantaged children there are no resources to teach music.  Three years ago Joanna Crookes, the former administrator of the National Youth Orchestra, offered her services on a voluntary basis to the DEIS designated St. Agnes School in Crumlin and the results have been nothing short of miraculous.  In just three years, she has managed through grants, donations and bursaries to buy instruments and turn her revolutionary vision into a reality.  Every child in the school now has the opportunity to play and many do.  In a much wider social context, what this project has also achieved is a vast improvement in discipline and violence issues in the schools and has also fostered a much more positive outlook for future prospects and expectations among the students.

Music education is totally underfunded in Ireland.  It is a shocking indictment of our privileged society that no one from an under-privileged background stands any chance of making it to the National Youth Orchestra regardless of talent.  According to one source “In Ireland today, a career in music is 5% dependent on talent and 95% dependent on money.”

The series takes its inspiration from the hugely successful El Sistema project that began over thirty years ago in Venezuela bringing music to the streets and slums of Caracas.  The Venezuelan Simon Bolivar orchestra now tours the globe and some of their most gifted members now work as soloists and conductors with the likes of the Berlin and New York Philharmonics and the Los Angeles Symphony.

Edicson Ruiz was 17 when he became a double bassist with the Berlin Philharmonic two years ago.  We took two of the most promising young musicians from St. Agnes School in Crumlin to meet Edicson.