Featured

We always champion the social impact of orchestral programs serving youth around the world, and part of that advocacy is a need to self-reflect and revisit our ideas with fresh eyes. To that end, the latest issue of Music and Arts in Action is worth a read.

It’s been said that our very own Eric Booth wrote the book on teaching artistry. Well, now he literally has: Making Change: Teaching Artists and Their Role in Shaping a Better World  is an accessible, practical guide to teaching artistry, offering an easy on-ramp to newcomers and lots of good advocacy tools to old hands.

A 16–year–old’s song is letting young men in Australia know it’s okay to express their emotions. “Because Boys” was written by Rory Phillips as part of the Boys’ Vocal Program in New South Wales.

Drawing inspiration from a Sufi poem about a flock of birds searching for the meaning of life, Teach for India has dreamed up a beautifully unique artistic vision of modern India. Promoting liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice, “The Conference of the Birds” is a Sufi– and Hamilton-inspired hop hop production co-created by Teach for India students and alumni and other performing artists.

What is community music’s role in addressing social inequality? The Creative Change project is hoping to answer this question through a series of research-informed projects with Aboriginal communities across Australia.

Women and gender minorities are significantly underrepresented in music, receiving less recognition, publicity, and funding than their male counterparts; the European Union has been making strides to address this issue thanks to their Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025, but there is still a ways to go.

We know that music inspires us, uplifts us, and connects us. But did you know that music we consider “sad” achieves those outcomes just as well as—if not better than—happy music?

Applications are now open for a free training opportunity in the UK for arts facilitators interested in broadening their methodological toolkit. The program, run in tandem by Leeds Beckett University and Musicians Without Borders, will train participants in the working principles of the MWB music leadership programs that serve people impacted by war and armed conflict.

If you’re a teaching artist, or have ever been one, you’ve probably wondered: Should I always take the lead in the learning process? Are there ways students can take the lead sometimes? What’s the best way for my students to learn?

Such questions are often the focus of “The Firebird Fellowship,” the program at the heart of the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM), a global innovation lab for changemakers tackling educational inequality through music education.

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.