Gather Together

 
The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.
 
The Ensemble Newsletter

Regions

Africa

Asia/Oceania

Europe

Latin America

North America

Topics

Teaching & Learning

Program Design

Student Voice & Leadership

Community Building

Collaborations

Funding & Support

Perspectives & Collective Action

News & Resources

Hosting Fire Up! in Athens: A Week of Collective Practice and Exchange

Angeliki Georgokosta, General Manager, and Lydia Margari, Ensembles Manager, El Sistema Greece

05-06-2026

When the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM) suggested bringing the Fire Up! residency to Athens, we felt both excitement and a strong sense of responsibility. Our space is deeply meaningful to us; El Sistema Greece is a vibrant community grounded in trust, creativity, and daily collaboration, and inviting colleagues from across Europe into that community felt acutely personal. The residency itself was intense and demanding, with constant transitions between workshops, rehearsals, peer exchanges, and shared experiences. It also afforded us a rare opportunity: a chance to be students in our own teaching spaces, and to see those spaces through the eyes of our peers.

Statewide Instrument Donation

05-06-2026

On May 30, Ohio will join two other U.S. states (Colorado and Arkansas) in starting a statewide instrument-donation program, sponsored by a number of collaborating music education organizations and a lot of volunteers.

Free Resources for Artists

05-06-2026

Creative Capital for Artists is a free resource that announces, grants, residencies, and award opportunities for artists in all disciplines.

Summer Rock in the Balkans

05-06-2026

Each summer for the past 18 years, Music Connects has brought 60 young people from divided and marginalized communities across the Western Balkans together in Skopje.

Playlists from Carnegie Hall Corrections Program

05-06-2026

Carnegie Hall celebrates 15 years of its Musical Connections program with Sing Sing Voices, a new collection of video playlists featuring original music created by participants and alumni at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison.

EDITORIAL
Practicing Collaboration

Angelica Cortez, Executive Director, Suzuki Association of the Americas

05-06-2026

In arts education programs, we tend to work with our heads down. Doing our work every day is enough: it takes more time than we have to create our lesson plans, to build healthy organizational infrastructure that is adaptive and responsive, or even to collaborate with the colleagues within our own organizations. As artists and arts leaders, we forget to look up and out. But as various crises combine forces to pull us away from each other, our need for collective work is not something we can afford to have on a backburner. It needs to be a central focus. We need to build strong local networks and to diversify our collaborators. 

We need to connect—with fellow arts organizations, and with organizations we might never consider in our daily work.

British Royal Music Schools Become More Diverse

05-06-2026

For over 100 years, Britain’s Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) has supported music education in the U.K. and across the world.

Advice on Hiring a First Fundraiser

05-06-2026

If you are going to hire a staff member as your first dedicated fundraiser, Patrick Slevin (Executive Director of Austin Soundwaves) offers advice based on his personal experience.

Suggested Reading: Music Reshapes Young Lives in Africa

05-06-2026

The Art of Positive Fatalism – Lessons from Kinshasa is a new book by Lukas Pairon, the founder of the international research organization SIMM (Social Impact of Making Music).

NEOJIBA on Tour

05-06-2026

The youth orchestra of the Brazilian program NEOJIBA has just returned from its 10th international tour, having visited Frankfurt, Germany, and four cities in China.

Share

ABOUT US MASTHEAD THE AMBASSADORS THE ARCHIVES SUBSCRIBE CONTACT
© Copyright 2022 Ensemble News