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Unpacking AIM’s Five Pillars of Practice

Fiona Cunningham, Director, Academy for Impact through Music (AIM)

02-02-2022

Our five Pillars of Practice not only articulate areas in which our Firebird Fellows commit to stretch with their students. They also underpin AIM’s approach to teacher training. Teachers need and deserve to participate in empowering experiential learning that informs how they support their students.

Ghetto Classics Dance, in Nairobi, Kenya

Joanna Priwieziencew, who has danced with companies in the U.S., Europe, and Egypt, and now divides her time between the U.S. and Kenya, where she heads the dance program of Ghetto Classics

02-02-2022

On the crowded roads of Korogocho, with its 300,000 inhabitants on 1.5 sq. km, its tin homes with no running water and open sewage, and its backdrop of Dandora (an immense, ever-growing, and constantly burning mountain of garbage), one can scarcely imagine encountering a center filled with live arts. But that is the home of Ghetto Classics, where every corner, every room vibrates with music—from Chopin to Tanzanian composer Adam Salim.

AIMing Forward: Introducing the Academy for Impact through Music

Eric Booth, Cofounder, The Ensemble; Senior Advisor/Lead Faculty, AIM

01-05-2022

The global field of music for social change is committed, smart, resilient, and brimming with talented teachers, administrators, and students—that’s a lot of assets! But it isn’t organized to learn well and get better as a field. Indeed, as I traveled during the past decade to 25 countries to observe good programs in action, I consistently heard that their two greatest challenges were finances and faculty. These problems haven’t been getting better.

Korea’s Orchestra of Dream Celebrates Ten Years with “I Contact”

Yun Hye-bin, Community Education Team, KACES

01-05-2022

KACES wrestled with the best way to plan the celebration, an important milestone for us. Ironically, minimizing human contact became the primary mission for a concert designed to bring people together. We eventually came up with the idea of a contactless concert and began putting into action a plan unlike any we had tried before.

From Musicambia: Lessons from Teaching Music in Prisons

Nathan Schram, Founder and Artistic Director, Musicambia

01-05-2022

Teaching music in prisons is about doing the most with the resources you have. And everywhere we teach, we learn something new from our collaborating musicians; in many ways, we learn as much from our experiences as our students do. In the spirit of reflection and new beginnings, I want to share a few of the lessons that have shaped our work over the past seven years.

An Unusual Orchestra Creates a Transformational Work of Art

As told to Tricia Tunstall, Cofounder and Contributing Editor, The Ensemble, by Omar Zambrano, Artistic Director, Latin Vox Machine

01-05-2022

On November 5, 2021, an audience of three thousand packed the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the premiere of a work that would have been deemed extraordinary under any circumstances: a brand new part-symphonic, part-operatic, part-pop musical theater show based on a child-centered fable written by a French aviator during the Second World War.

“We Still Have Much to Learn”: Culturally Responsive Teaching in Elsipogtog First Nation

Larry Matthews on behalf of Sistema New Brunswick

12-01-2021

When anchoring your children in their ancient Mi’kmaq culture is critical to your future, as it is in Elsipogtog First Nation in eastern New Brunswick (Canada), how do violin or cello lessons fit into their education? This question has been at the forefront for both Sistema New Brunswick and Elsipogtog community leaders for the past five years. Thankfully, through the wisdom and generosity of those community leaders, an answer has begun to emerge.

The Life of Jorge Peña Hen, Part IV: An Enduring Legacy

Lautaro Rojas Flores, Faculty (Retired), Escuela Experimental de Música Jorge Peña Hen, Universidad de La Serena

12-01-2021

Maestro Peña’s music school concept was truly revolutionary in its academic structure. It represented a total curriculum change—different methodologies, new motivations, and participation across several orchestras and bands of different levels. However, the budget allocated by the University only supported a violin studio, a piano studio, and a singing studio. It would require a lot of resources to finance a music curriculum that featured teachers who specialized in all instruments, the purchase of those instruments, and reliable infrastructure.

Opening Doors at Sistema Cyprus

Marios Antoniou, Grants and Educational Programs Officer, Sistema Cyprus

12-01-2021

From moment one, the children were eager to hold an instrument in their hands and make their first attempts at producing sound. Before long, we needed more space to hold multiple lessons concurrently. That need led us outside; our cellists took to the streets for their lessons. Passersby were fascinated to see these local kids playing beautifully right in front of them and began asking about the music project. We found another room to host lessons soon enough, but our time rehearsing outside led us to an important realization: maybe we should keep the doors open more often.

Music Endures at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music

Eric Booth, Cofounder, The Ensemble, in conversation with Ahmad Naser Sarmast, Founder/Director, ANIM

12-01-2021

The ANIM campus had long been a target of Taliban terrorism, not only for its musical focus but also for its male/female coeducation and promotion of women. Its visionary founder/leader, Ahmad Sarmast, had once been injured in a terrorist bombing.

In August, the peaceful campus, which included dormitories and a performance space, was taken over almost immediately by the Taliban, who are now using it as an operations center. Since then, we have been holding our collective breath, worrying about the safety of ANIM’s hundreds of students and faculty.

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