Gather Together

When the team at Community MusicWorks built the program’s new home, they brought their longtime luthier into their building.

Celebrating 15 years of the program, “Exploring Identity” is one of three recently released playlists featuring performances from Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

The Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association (GELYDA) has produced a special double issue of their magazine Extensions, themed entirely around Creative Youth Development (CYD).

One of our longest-standing members asked a question at a meeting this year that I still cannot answer well. He had rehearsed four or five pieces for our concert last December. On the afternoon itself, he participated in playing only one of them. He wanted to know how that had come about. He put his question to everyone in the room.

SIMM (Social Impact of Making Music) is calling for applications to participate in the 14th SIMM research seminar, happening February 24–26, 2027 at Vienna’s mdw-University of Music.

Last month, my daughter’s choir director needed parents to take tickets to the year-end concert. I had been a choir singer and director myself, so I know the invisible work it takes to put students on a stage. When the request came, I wanted to be the kind of parent who showed up.

Then, my week got overwhelming. By the time the concert arrived, I was no longer deciding between helping and not helping. I was deciding which responsibility would boil over first if I took my attention off it.

When we think about the income generated by the music industry, we don’t usually think of music education as a major contributor.

The first chapter of a Lullaby Project song is usually written in a room where strangers have just met. Professional composers sit beside a mother who has never written music before. A child wanders around the room, curious but unsure. Participants may speak through an interpreter. Others may communicate more through gestures than words. At first, there are introductions, hesitant smiles, and long pauses. There is no score, no lyrics, no expectation of what the music should become. 

Bombs destroyed the well-equipped buildings of the Palestine National Conservatory and war displacement scattered its faculty. But that didn’t stop them.

Global Artivism is building an international network of artists and teaching artists who work to change social and political realities.