"We do not teach music for music's sake, but music for the production of citizens."

Those are the words of Steven Liu, Program Director for El Sistema Lehigh Valley, an education initiative now in its third year of the Allentown Symphony Association, which provides Allentown youths who are underserved with free music instruction.

Students of El Sistema Lehigh Valley present an end-of-the-year concert, 6 p.m. June 5, Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. Sixth St., Allentown. The concert is free and open to the public.

Also performing: Allentown School District All City Elementary Band, conductors Joe Busolits and William Wagner; Allentown School District Junior String Ensemble, conductor Larry Flynn; El Sistema Lehigh Valley Choir, conductor Kyle Keller; El Sistema Lehigh Valley Orchestra, conductors Steven Liu, Sharon Gulla, Michelle Lie, and Combined El Sistema Lehigh Valley ESLV and Allentown School District Junior String Ensemble, conductor Steven Liu.

"Why music? Why not football or baseball? Musicians are the only people who come together to be in harmony," explains Liu.

"The kids inherently understand that they are part of something. At the end of the day, El Sistema is a community engagement program. Music is the vehicle, and the output is the production of citizens."

El Sistema is a worldwide program. The Lehigh Valley program serves more than 80 children in the Allentown School District, first through ninth grade, of which more than 76 percent are Latino. There are 60 children on the program's waiting list. Children receive 10 to 15 hours a week of music instruction.

"Every time they have an instrument in their hands," says Liu, "they don't have a drug in their hands. If the schools are really interested in the whole child, they need to look at the arts," he says.

Liu makes sure that El Sistema Lehigh Valley keeps students engaged and makes learning fun, but that it also fosters personal discipline. His motto is "firm and fair." He sets clear expectations for students, with a distinct element of peer-to-peer education, as well, with students learning to mentor each other.

"It's about improvement through music," relates Liu. "It's about targeting poverty though music. It's not about finding the best musicians. It's about giving kids access to music. It's about social change."