Maestro Frank Di Polo, founding member of Venezuela's El Sistema, recently visited the Soma Children’s Orchestra Project, which was established in the city of Soma, province of Fukushima, for the purpose of helping the children and community of Soma to recover from the effects of the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

The bilateral agreement signed between the Longy School of Music of Bard College and the Simón Bolívar Music Foundation aims at developing and expanding academic programs by both institutions.