Some people might hate someone who is successful, but in Peru, they love it! It makes them feel they can be successful, too. That's a good state of mind for a country that wants to come out of poverty.

With El Sistema, you can create orchestras everywhere; then they can decide whether they want to become professional musicians. The aim is not only to create musicians, but to create people.

In Peru, there is no theatre that produces an annual opera season, and though there is one orchestra in Lima, it's always struggling to survive. We shouldn't have just one orchestra, we should have 15, we should have 50! And you should start to build this from the children.

Juan Diego Florez Quotes