Choir

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

The Queen of Paradise program was originally the brainchild of Father Miguel de la Calle, a priest at the IVE (Instituto del Verbo Encarnado) mission in Papua New Guinea. Father Miguel, says Maestro Briceño, “had full confidence, from day one, in the power of music to positively change lives.”

From Puccini’s Turandot to the Congolese-inspired Missa Luba, from pulsating calypso arrangements to Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” performed to the rhythm of East Indian tassa drums, The Lydians organization has always sought to expand its participants’ sense of what’s possible.

Regressive lawmaking in the U.S. has led some music educators to feel unsafe talking about race, gender, or history in the classroom. In response, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) a published a must-read report earlier this year on Divisive Concepts Laws (DCL) – legislative and executive orders that restrict teaching and learning activities related to race, gender, sexuality, and U.S. history—and their impact on music educators across the U.S.

As communities grow increasingly diverse in places like British Columbia, where 29% of the population identify as immigrants, programs like VYC Kindred, from the Vancouver Youth Choir, are offering music as a meeting place for the region’s past and future.

El Sistema programs, mark your calendars: the second Global Congress of El Sistema will be held at the Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música in Caracas, Venezuela on September 10–24, 2023.

Through a collaborative “Orchestra and Choir of Hope,” children from Branko Pešić get to perform with peers from two music schools with whom MAP cooperates. But Music of Hope leaders realized the students had multiple needs—they were hungry, both emotionally and literally.

In India’s most disadvantaged communities, musicianship is not always encouraged. Domestic violence is not uncommon in some homes; in others, girls are not allowed to sing due to household chores. Some families simply don’t like their children singing. And yet many of these very same communities have produced the members of the NalandaWay Foundation’s Children’s Choir.

The Abreu Chamber Choir (ACC) is a vocal group formed by young Venezuelan singers who grew up in El Sistema programs but are currently residing in several countries in Europe. The group was founded because of a desire to return to making music with colleagues and friends. We have organized a number of concerts, collaborative learning days, and training workshops for young singers and conductors, continuing the legacy and visionary teachings of Maestro José Antonio Abreu.

The story of music education as a catalyst for social change in South Africa and Lesotho is long and complicated. The history of human struggle and social unrest in southern Africa is well documented, but it gave birth to a new era of growth and potential for its people. One might say that in the wake of South Africa’s newfound freedom from Apartheid, democracy opened many doors to Black South Africans. Within that greater context, I share my own musical journey as a snapshot of three decades of music, equity, and opportunity in South Africa and Lesotho.