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The Life of Jorge Peña Hen, Part I: A Giant of Our Cultural Heritage

Raúl Vergara, Cofounder and International Programs Director, Global Leaders Program; Graduate, La Escuela Experimental de Música Jorge Peña Hen

08-04-2021

Winter 2012, La Serena, Chile: an overcast but mild day, with a soft, chilly ocean breeze from the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. I was with Victor Hugo, a high school friend of mine who had put his trumpet aside to study law and journalism at the university before becoming the editor of a local newspaper. We were both accompanying Don Juan Orrego Salas, a 93-year-old gentleman who was visiting our city to pay a posthumous tribute to a dear friend of his, to whom he had never gotten to say goodbye in person. We bought a bouquet of flowers and entered the front gate of the cemetery without an exact knowledge of where we were going—which was not a problem, since everyone we passed knew the precise location of the memorial to Jorge Peña Hen.

Floods of Fire: An Evolving Artist-Led Community Building Project

Hilary Kleinig, multi-disciplinary musician based in Adelaide, Australia

08-04-2021

What is the role and purpose of the orchestra in the 21st century? As society, culture, and funding models change, how audiences engage with live music also continues to shift, which has led to an “industry-wide existential soul-searching.” Some argue that the traditional orchestral model is risk-averse and outdated, and that orchestras could better address some of these issues by “creating a new canon” and “better connecting with the world.”

With orchestras around the world seeking new ways to work, engage, and connect with communities, I’d like to share with you a project that I’m involved in, where an orchestra and its community are collaborating in deep and meaningful ways to tell their unique stories.

World Ensemble Day at SEYO

Eric Booth, Cofounder, The Ensemble and World Ensemble Newsletters

08-04-2021

Twenty-something short videos in an online gallery. They aren’t the finalists for a film festival “short film” competition, or a set of algorithm-selected favorites. They are us, the best of us—short films about innovative solutions that music for social change programs around the world submitted for World Ensemble Day workshops at SEYO (Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra) Summerfest 2021. World Ensemble Day celebrated the proud history and healthy future of innovation to address the challenges and fulfill the high goals of our programs—a fitting presentation for a news hub that exists to connect our field around all kinds of aspirational ideas.

The Bands Will Sound Again: Preserving NOLA’s Marching Band Tradition at The Roots of Music

Ben Makarchuk, writer, The Roots of Music

08-03-2021

Silence does not belong in New Orleans. Here, any excuse for a celebration is met with a full-blown, over-the-top extravaganza. Noise is welcomed, and our best noise-producers—musicians—play a crucial role in everyday life. Of course, one type of ensemble represents New Orleans better than any other: the marching band. In New Orleans, a marching band is a magnet; it brings people together and shares with them a piece of the region’s soul. But in 2020, the silent spread of the coronavirus left New Orleanians without this deep tradition. It left New Orleans without its noise.

Finding My Voice through Leadership

Kimberly Mendoza, Youth Leader, The Institute of Music for Children

08-03-2021

The Institute of Music for Children is a community arts organization serving students in elementary through high school. The Institute offers beginner- and advanced-level classes in guitar, piano, drawing/painting, filmmaking, singing, dancing, and more. All year long (including summers!), students are exposed to different art forms as they develop new personal interests—meeting new friends, seeing old ones, and socializing through the art and enrichment classes offered here. It is more than a creative hub; it provides young people with a caring and welcoming family.

Caption TK

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Institute’s Youth Leader Program. None of the summer camps I ever attended had anything like it—a program essentially designed to help us grow up.

A Letter from Myanmar to Our International Community

Anonymous

07-07-2021

I am a pianist from Myanmar. Please let me tell you about the current situation here in my country.

Before February 2021, some of you might not have been familiar with the country called Myanmar. Because of the military coup and the spring revolution, the world now knows where Myanmar is. Since the coup on February 1, the junta has killed 863 people and detained 6,046 people (AAPP Burma, June 14).

The Long-Term Impact of What We Do: A 12-Year Perspective

Abigail Dance, Teacher Musician, In Harmony Lambeth

07-07-2021

Over the years, there have been many memorable and defining moments for me at IHL. The ten-year-old student I chanced upon playing his violin on the street, not busking for money, but playing for the community “to make them feel happy on their way to school”; two young students who took their instruments to church the Sunday after their second viola lesson, to share with their congregation the four notes they had learned; the trip to Canada with our senior students, where we joined with other Sistema organizations for a huge orchestral celebration in our shared language of music; and many more.

Although our program is defined by the powerful togetherness and shared narrative of our orchestral family, I would like to share the stories of two talented and hardworking young artists who had their first taste of music-making through IHL nearly 12 years ago—Simi and Elijah.

Celebrating the Potential of Our Vulnerable Communities at M-LISADA

Bosco Segawa, Founder, M-LISADA Organization

07-07-2021

Music attracts and connects otherwise unreachable hearts. And for children from the streets, it has the ability to soothe souls, provide comfort, and offer hope for the future. At M-LISADA Organization (Music Life Skills And Destitution Alleviation), a Ugandan registered NGO in the heart of the Katwe slums on the outskirts of Kampala, we serve those children with music education that celebrates their possibilities.

Iberacademy: Human Development Based on Musical Excellence

Irene Littfack, Journalist, Iberacademy

07-07-2021

More than a decade ago, Colombian orchestra conductor Alejandro Posada founded the Iberoamerican Philharmonic Academy—Iberacademy—in Medellín with one purpose in mind: to provide young Latin American talent with opportunities for human development through musical education of excellence.

“A Place to Share What I Needed”: Finding Our Strengths at My Voice Music

Ian Mouser, Founder and Executive Director, My Voice Music

07-06-2021

The idea for My Voice Music started in 2007, when I brought my guitar into a residential mental health facility where I was a Treatment Counselor working with youth. One of the kids asked me to teach him to play guitar and sing a song in time for the talent show. There was only one catch: the show was two weeks away.

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