Over the last years, El Sistema--the Venezuelan project started in 1975 and now acknowledged worldwide as the most significant example of collective music education--has inspired a profusion of remarkable initiatives on all continents. From the original impulse by founder José Antonio Abreu, strong social principles of integration are combined with specific musical approaches to achieve individual empowerment as a large-scale alternative to endemic juvenile crime, counteracting the risk factors of social unease, serving as a stimulating example toward emancipation, and providing professional opportunities to the talented. Such a network, in turn, proves to be a powerful instrument of cultural progress: the tenets of "Sistema" become shared values able to foster development, reaching into issues of disability and rehabilitation. This paper presents continuities and contrasts in various ramifications of such a successful trend and outlines perspectives for further impact of this powerful transformational agent.

It is widely believed that intensive music training can boost cognitive and visuo-motor skills. However, this evidence is primarily based on retrospective studies; this makes it difficult to determine whether a cognitive advantage is caused by the intensive music training, or it is instead a factor influencing the choice of starting a music curriculum. To address these issues in a highly ecological setting, we tested longitudinally 128 students of a Middle School in Milan, at the beginning of the first class and, 1 year later, at the beginning of the second class. 72 students belonged to a Music curriculum (30 with previous music experience and 42 without) and 56 belonged to a Standard curriculum (44 with prior music experience and 12 without). Using a Principal Component Analysis, all the cognitive measures were grouped in four high-order factors, reflecting (a) General Cognitive Abilities, (b) Speed of Linguistic Elaboration, (c) Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests, and (d) Visuospatial and numerical skills. The longitudinal comparison of the four groups of students revealed that students from the Music curriculum had better performance in tests tackling General Cognitive Abilities, Visuospatial skills, and Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests. However, there were no significant curriculumby-time interactions. Finally, the decision to have a musical experience before entering middle school was more likely to occur when the cultural background of the families was a high one. We conclude that a combination of family-related variables, early music experience, and pre-existent cognitive make-up is a likely explanation for the decision to enter a music curriculum at middle school.

The conference entitled "The Neurosciences and Music-IV: Learning and Memory'' was held at the University of Edinburgh from June 9-12, 2011, jointly hosted by the Mariani Foundation and the Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, and involving nearly 500 international delegates. Two opening workshops, three large and vibrant poster sessions, and nine invited symposia introduced a diverse range of recent research findings and discussed current research directions. Here, the proceedings are introduced by the workshop and symposia leaders on topics including working with children, rhythm perception, language processing, cultural learning, memory, musical imagery, neural plasticity, stroke rehabilitation, autism, and amusia. The rich diversity of the interdisciplinary research presented suggests that the future of music neuroscience looks both exciting and promising, and that important implications for music rehabilitation and therapy are being discovered.

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Music is a unique phenomenon, constantly eliciting interest from a variety of viewpoints, several of which intersect the universal trait of musicality with sex/gender studies and the neurosciences. Its unparalleled power and physical, social, aesthetic, as well as cognitive, emotional and clinical ramifications make it a specially promising terrain for studies and reflections on sex and gender differences and their impact. This overview wishes to enhance awareness of such issues, also fostering an interdisciplinary exchange between the natural sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Over the centuries, different associations of music with the feminine gender have contributed to a pendulum between progressive recognition and stereotypical setbacks requiring to be overcome. Against this backdrop, music‐related neurophysiological and psychological studies on sex and gender specificities are reviewed in their multiple approaches and results, exposing or questioning differences in structural, auditory, hormonal, cognitive, and behavioral areas, also in relation to abilities, treatment, and pedagogy. Thus, the bridging potential of music as universal yet diverse language, art, and practice, recommends its gender‐aware integration into education, protective endeavors, and therapeutic interventions, to promote equality and well‐being.

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Travailler sur « El Sistema » impose de distinguer la légende et l'histoire, l'action et son retentissement, l'extension et la persistance, l'engouement et la réalité, la passion et la militance, les souhaits et les résultats objectifs. La naissance du projet, avec 11 musiciens, dans un garage de Caracas, la multiplication des participants dès le lendemain, la propagation quasi-miraculeuse des années suivantes, les centaines de « núcleos » 2 sur tout le territoire vénézuélien, y compris dans les zones les plus éloignées, puis les tournées des principaux orchestres du Venezuela dans des salles célèbres et les soirées qui se terminent immanquablement par une explosion de joie, telles sont les manifestations d'une mythologie attrayante et longtemps alimentée, il faut en convenir, par une propagande évidente.Le projet a connu son apogée au moment de la désignation, en 2007, de Gustavo Dudamel, son plus célèbre talent, à la direction musicale du Los Angeles Philharmonic, puis des « résidences » en 2013 au Festival de Salzbourg et à la Scala de Milan pour EXPO 2015. Ces deux cycles ont célébré de façon concluante toutes les facettes de la production officielle d'El Sistema, en présentant les différentes générations orchestrales, des vétérans du « Simón Bolívar » à l'Orchestre « Infantil » (âge maximal 13 ans). 3 Aujourd'hui le Venezuela connaît une situation dramatique avec 80 % de la population (août 2017) vivant au-dessous du seuil de pauvreté, privée de nourriture et de soins. * Maria Majno exprime ses plus vifs remerciements à Chara Iacovidou, Isabelle Joris et Michel Starobinski pour leurs précieuses observations. 1. « Et dans le "comment" se trouve toute la différence ». 2. Les structures fonctionnelles, éducatives, artistiques et administratives d'El Sistema sont appelées « noyau ».