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The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.
 
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Contribute to the ABLE Assembly, Focusing on Intersectionality, Disability, and Arts Education—Deadline 12.15.2020

11-18-2020

Do you have something to share about working with students with disabilities? If so, consider proposing a session (20-minute pre-recorded video, with guidance provided by the conference leaders) for the ABLE Assembly: Arts Better the Lives of Everyone, Digital Conference, April 10–11, 2021. This year’s theme is Intersectionality, Disability, and Arts Education. Since the music for social change movement prioritizes the value of inclusion, it would be great for us to be leading contributors to this global field. The deadline for proposals is December 15; learn more and consider submitting one here.

Ambassador Talks: Tricia Tunstall

Axelle Miel, Ambassadors Program Leader (Philippines)

11-04-2020

Aside from working together on projects and publishing updates about their respective Sistema programs, Ambassadors are given the opportunity to receive various forms of enrichment throughout the year. This month, they met with Tricia Tunstall, who cofounded The Ensemble and The World Ensemble newsletters and authored the seminal book Playing for Their Lives: The Global El Sistema Movement for Social Change Through Music.

Early-childhood Music Program for Families with Infants

11-04-2020

Big Note, Little Note is a new early-childhood music program for families with infants. Designed by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in partnership with local community centers and organizations, the new ten-week music class offers a range of experiences for families to engage with their babies through musical play, singing, songwriting, instrument exploration, and more. The program is offered free to families around the world to support family well-being, early child development, and parent-child connection.

Applications Open for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Ensembles

11-04-2020

Applications are now open for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Ensembles. Please let your most promising students know about NYO2, a free orchestra program of intensive training and performance opportunities with a track record of recruiting musicians from communities underrepresented in classical music. The National Youth Orchestra of the United States (NYO-USA) deadline is November 12 ; the NYO2 application is due December 1; and NYO Jazz is due by January 21. All are free and led by distinguished artists.

Canada Connects

Kathryn Cobbler, Teaching Artist, OrKidstra, Ottawa, Ontario; Jacquie McNulty, Site Manager, Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta (YONA) – Sistema, Edmonton; Karma Tomm, Director, Sistema Kingston, Ontario

11-03-2020

As El Sistema-inspired programs, we value community. Over the years, programs of various shapes and sizes have sprung up across Canada, laying down roots in priority communities. Although each program is unique in how it strives to support the students and families it serves, we are united as El Sistema-inspired programs in our shared belief in the transformative power of music. We are also bound together in confronting issues that concern all Canadians—issues of income inequality, racism, and systemic oppression, to name a few.

Collective Action for Greater Impact

Armand Hall, Executive and Artistic Director, ROCmusic Collaborative, Rochester, NY

11-03-2020

I am a musician, conductor, and educator who strives to bring reason and connection to my community. This focus was emboldened in 2009 when I was invited by Roberto Zambrano to come to Venezuela as a teaching artist with the Archipelago Project. There, I saw how real community engagement and collective effort can produce excellence. In 2018, I was fortunate to apply for a leadership job with the ROCmusic Collaborative in Rochester, NY. What interested me was the opportunity to work inside an atypical structure that could pool resources and work to recreate the communal spirit I witnessed in Venezuela.

On Organizational Service

Patrick Slevin, Executive and Artistic Director, Austin Soundwaves, TX

11-03-2020

The El Sistema-inspired field is committed to ongoing dialogue, reflection, and adaptation. We regularly analyze our successes and failures, and ask questions like, “What more can we do to support our communities?” and “How can we respond to events happening in our backyards and across the nation?”

Three New Podcasts

10-07-2020

Three new podcasts have been launched to broaden your musical perspective. First, Garrett McQueen has co-created a classical music podcast called Trilloquy with Classical MPR host Scott Blankenship. The podcast seeks to explore and uplift classical music of all cultures beyond the Western European canon. The Lewis Prize has also announced the launch news of Original Score, an Indigenous perspective on music, a new podcast produced by Navajo composer and Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) teaching artist Michael Begay. Read more and share widely using their Announcement Toolkit. And finally, the Atlanta Music Project has launched a podcast series hosted by Cofounder and CEO Dantes Rameau. Titled The Next Movement, it features in-depth video interviews with artistic luminaries that culminate in Q & As with AMP students and faculty. Watch Episode 1 here.

ArtPlace Annual Summit

10-07-2020

ArtPlace America celebrates its 10th year as a collaboration among foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that support and strengthen a field of creative placemaking—the field that increasingly uses artists in planning and developing equitable, healthy, and sustainable communities. To celebrate, ArtPlace is offering its annual Summit virtually (October 26-30) and for free this year (you must register); it includes over 50 sessions, and affinity groups you can join to engage personally.

Continuing to Make Music, One Virtual Video at a Time

Laura Patterson, Executive Director, Make Music NOLA, New Orleans, LA

10-06-2020

Like programs all over the country, Make Music NOLA (MMN) was forced in March 2020 to quickly reinvent our programs for virtual learning. For our after-school students, we created weekly video lessons designed to take the place of their music theory, chamber ensemble, and fiddle classes. But these videos weren’t workable for the 100 students we reach through in-school programming—who attend several different charter schools, were doing remote learning through different systems, and, because of the abruptness of school closures, didn’t even have instruments at home.

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