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The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.
 
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Free Lesson Plans from Smithsonian Folkways

 

 

05-01-2024

Are you a music teacher looking to diversify your lesson plans? The Smithsonian Folkways website hosts a digital database of free music lesson plans from around the world.

Curation, Not Composition: Strategies for Healthy Collaboration in the Classroom

Mike Roberts, composer and sound artist specializing in electronic, choral, and community music; Founder/Head of the Electronic & Produced Music Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, U.K.

05-01-2024

It was during a choir rehearsal, at age nine, that I decided to become a composer. Choir was an oasis of joy in an otherwise difficult school experience; I simply lived for each opportunity to sing. Since then, it’s been my joy to witness, time and time again, music’s transformative power in community—never more so than in communities of singers, and never more powerfully than when those singers are empowered to compose their own songs.

Singing for a Cooler Planet

04-03-2024

Across the U.K., choirs are coming together to raise their voices for change.

B-Me Project Creates Free Scores for Orchestras

04-03-2024

The B-Me project has produced a collection of lovely new orchestral scores, which you can now explore and borrow for free.

Youth-Led Research Explores Healthy Music Experiences

04-03-2024

A new research project in Scotland is taking its cue from young people.

Beirut Chants Turns to El Sistema

Richard Azoury, Finance Manager, Beirut Chants

04-03-2024

It was not a promising time to be learning or teaching music in Lebanon. The Lebanese pound had depreciated by over 90%, making music lessons a luxury that few could afford. The National Conservatory of Music was mostly non-operational; schools had stopped music classes for lack of funding, and our country’s youth had no means to advance their musical education. In this challenging environment, Father Maatouk turned to the El Sistema model.

Action Research in the Western Balkans: Music and Social Reconciliation

Ismar Porić, Founder/Director, House of Good Tones

04-03-2024

Can bringing young people from different cultures together, through arts-related experiences, help to promote understanding, communication, and peace building?

This is a question on the minds of many people working in the global field of arts for social change. Over the past few years, my program, The House of Good Tones in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has partnered with two other Balkan programs (SO-DO, in Zagreb, Croatia, and the Music Art Project, in Belgrade, Serbia) on a research project designed to explore this question—a particularly important question in our part of the world.

(Re)Understanding Creativity

Betsaleel “Bets” Charmelus, CEO, ArtistYear

04-03-2024

It’s easy for us, as teaching artists, to believe that all humans can access creativity. As the leader of ArtistYear and a practicing teaching artist myself, I understand the inclination. Any notion suggesting otherwise seems to challenge fundamental beliefs about our purpose—if there are people who can’t access creativity, then a place exists where teaching artistry is rendered ineffective. With this line of thinking, however, some nuance in the conversation is lost.

Want to Amplify Youth Voices? Give Them a Podcast Mic

Haley Witt, Visibility Manager, Youth on Record

04-03-2024

In mainstream media, youth voices are widely absent, overlooked, or sensationalized. Youth on Record (YOR) aims to address this gap through our creative youth programming, including its Podcasting Production Internship. The program seeks to foster a supportive environment where young people explore creative storytelling and produce podcasts that amplify their voices and ideas.

Art Heals: Arts as a basic need in humanitarian settings

Samar Bandak, Global Communications Manager, Community Arts Network

03-05-2024

I have worked in the humanitarian sector for almost 15 years, in both Jordan and Lebanon, which have the highest refugees per capita in the world. In that time, I’ve learned thousands of life stories: of people who lost their homes, their possessions, and their established lives; of traumatized children and departed loved ones; of extreme health crises, both mental and physical. Yet, despite the hardships they reveal, these stories have always been more about bravery, strength, resilience, faith, and love.

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