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El Sistema Greece: A Multiform Approach to Multiple Circumstances

Anis Barnat, Cofounder of El Sistema Greece, and José Ángel Salazar Marín, Artistic Director of El Sistema Greece

03-03-2021

El Sistema Greece is a free music education program open to all children in Greece. Because our students come from more than 30 different countries, the impact of the work we do, both with refugee children and with the larger local community encompassing both migrants and natives, is twofold.

“I Can and I Will”: Making Beautiful Music at Open Air School

Maxine Matthews, Project Manager, Durban Music School

03-03-2021

The Open Air School in Durban, South Africa is a long-standing institution offering education to learners who have physical impairments, from pre-primary through grade 12. Their motto, “I can and I will,” is how I have come to know each child I meet at the school. Nothing is beyond their reach or capability.

The Seminario, through a Student’s Eyes

Hannah Christensen, student, Sistema Utah; World Ensemble Ambassador

03-02-2021

Last month, I was fortunate enough to participate in El Sistema USA’s Symposium and Seminario, which took place online. The week was full of informative and surprising sessions. Before the week began, I recorded two videos that were later used in the Symposium itself. The first was a video of me discussing how we mentor in my program, Sistema Utah, which was later combined with submissions from other World Ensemble Ambassadors. In the other, I performed “What We Will Be” by Danielle Williams on my violin. I couldn’t wait to hear how it sounded when joined with videos that other participating students had sent in.

Connect, Adapt, Thrive: Lessons in Resiliency and Community from the 2021 El Sistema USA Symposium

Liz Moulthrop, Director, and Shanna Lin, Director of Education, Paterson Music Project

03-02-2021

Over the course of a week in mid-February, members of El Sistema USA met for the annual El Sistema USA Symposium and Seminario. Permeating this year’s sessions were the twin pandemics our country has grappled with for the past year: COVID-19 and systemic racism. El Sistema programs have had to confront the impacts of these crises at the local community level, and they had a lot to share.

Arts and Disabilities: Service-Learning in Trinidad and Tobago

Caitlyn Kamminga, Associate Professor Music (double bass), University of Trinidad and Tobago, Academy for the Performing Arts; Global Leaders Program alumna

02-03-2021

The first service-learning course I taught at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) Academy for the Performing Arts (APA) was a Residency in Community Arts. I chose to partner with the Consortium of Disabilities Organization (CODO) to offer my students a mentored residency working with students with disabilities. As I don’t have a background in special education, I decided to collaborate with a colleague from the University of the West Indies, music therapist Jean Raabe, to run an intensive workshop before the semester and join me in mentoring students on the project.

“Música para Respirar 24/7”: Bolivian Musicians Mobilize during Pandemic Crisis

Sergio Escalera, pianist; Cofounder of La Sociedad Boliviana de Música de Cámara; Global Leaders Program alumnus

02-03-2021

As I finish the now-common hour-long Zoom conference and sit still on my piano bench, I know that the image of my last audience will hover atop my most precious musical memories for a long time. They are a family based in Catalunya who recently lost one of their children to COVID-19. Now, quarantined at home due to strict local measures to fight the pandemic, they became my listeners as I played for them some of their deceased child’s favorite music—an online concert of remembrance.

2021: A New Chapter in Our Work Begins

Tricia Tunstall, The Ensemble News, Advisory Editor

02-03-2021

Does the phrase “international economic development” put you in mind of high-powered farm equipment and global trade policies? Think again—it may also refer to community-centered ensemble music education.

The Learning behind NEO-Learning

Scott Rankin, CEO and Creative Director, Big hART

02-03-2021

In the semi-remote town of Roebourne in the Pilbara region of the Western Australian Desert, the lack of attainment of Aboriginal young people in the Western education system does not reflect their place-based cultural literacies, which completely outstrip their city-based counterparts from Australia’s most successful schools, suburbs, and socio-economic cultures. They are so advanced and so advantaged in many Indigenous knowledge banks—over which their families and Elders are custodians—that they revel, often unknowingly (or the knowing is suppressed) in a unique cultural advantage.

Bringing Jazz into the Mix in Orquestra Geração, Sistema Portugal

Eduardo Lála, Conductor of Orquestra Geração/GeraJazz, Sistema Portugal; Global Leaders Program alumnus

02-03-2021

The slogan of Orquestra Geração suggests something deeper than just playing music. The idea of touching lives (in Portuguese, “tocamos” means “we play/we touch”) asserts that we can positively transform the lives of children and young people through music, giving them a feeling of unlimited potential. What I didn’t know before teaching in this program was that the slogan would apply to me as well, and that my life would be so intensely touched and transformed.

Youth Voices: The ChiMOP Alumni Internship Program

Ciera Henderson, Alumni Intern, Chicago Metamorphosis Orchestra Project

02-02-2021

During the fall of 2020, I participated in the Chicago Metamorphosis Orchestra Project’s (ChiMOP) new Alumni Internship Program (CAIP). CAIP was designed to offer recent ChiMOP graduates hands-on leadership experience during program hours as well as introductory-level job experience behind the scenes—helping staff with everything from lesson planning to administrative tasks. I signed up to gain experience, having never done anything like it before (unless you count trying to teach small groups of little ones while still a student myself). At first, it was a difficult adjustment. I worried that it would be a lot of work that didn’t come naturally to me. But despite some early struggles, I had a good time doing it—especially sharing the experience with the other interns.

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