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Every Lullaby Begins with a New Encounter

Fenia Biniari, Communications Manager, El Sistema Greece and Project Manager, ESG Lullaby Project, and Michalis Kalkanis and Christos Kalkanis, Seeds (composer duo)

09-02-2026

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. 

Concerts for Babies Transform Stages Into Communities

Paulo Lameiro, Founder and Artistic Director, Concerts for Babies

09-02-2026

In my small Portuguese village of Pousos, between the giant waves of Nazaré and the Shrine of Fátima, we had a community band. I joined at age 8, playing flugelhorn. I’m forever grateful for this decision, which launched a life in music. But it wasn’t until years later, when I served as the director of several conservatories, that I began asking why it took so long to get started.

Building a Culture of Artivism Across Europe

Sevi Matsakidou, Educational, Research, and Advocacy Manager, El Sistema Greece

07-08-2026

Like many organizations across Europe, El Sistema Greece draws part of its support from European Union programs. While our work has always focused on music and social change, we’ve recently partnered with organizations beyond the music sector to explore something broader: “artivism” across different art forms. This collaboration led to the launch of a new project, co-funded with the EU and dedicated to empowering young people, especially those with fewer opportunities.

Expanding the Lullaby Project in Greece

06-03-2026

For nine years, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece—in partnership with El Sistema Greece and New York’s Carnegie Hall—has presented works from The Lullaby Project, in which people with diverse experiences work with composers and songwriters to transform personal stories about relationships with children into original musical works.

Atlanta Music Project Launches a World Music Festival

06-03-2026

The FIFA World Cup is the world’s most watched and celebrated sporting event, and Atlanta, Georgia, will host three of the tournament’s matches this year.

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.

From Spark to Flame: A Glance at Fire Up! 2025

Elisabetta Lapadula, Communications Manager, SONG – Sistema Lombardia

04-01-2026

Imagine choosing—on purpose—to stop. To give yourself a moment of attention and ask, without judgment, a simple question: “Why do I do this work?” It’s a small exercise of meditation and self-awareness that we rarely find time for in our noisy daily routine. And yet, in that brief pause, something can appear: a spark that feeds the question, gives it space, and makes it louder.

For me, Fire Up! 2025 in Athens—a four-day teaching artist residency led by the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM)—was that spark. 

Sitting in the Student Seat at AIM’s Fire Up Residency

Olivia Romanet, Music Theory Teacher, MusicEnsemble, Conservatoire de Musique de Genève

10-01-2025

That first day, I felt like a teenager: somewhat defiant, hesitant to initiate, eager to observe, even mistrusting…but also wanting to chat, meet people, laugh, and share.

AIM knew what they were doing. We’d found ourselves on the other side of the classroom, sitting in the student chair. And in experimenting with ways to develop our own community and agency—our capacity for action—as educators, we found ourselves viewing students’ needs with new empathy.

EDITORIAL
The Sound of the World

Anis Barnat, Co-founder, El Sistema Greece; Managing Director, Community Arts Network (CAN)

09-04-2024

National and international youth orchestra and choir festivals instill a collaborative mindset in their participants and provide all attendees with powerful, lasting memories. But they are time-consuming to organize, requiring logistical know-how and well-considered, family-flexible safeguarding policies for the children and young people. It’s not only tiring; it’s expensive. And program leaders know firsthand that students progress with or without these national or international festivals. So why bother? What do they offer to young people that their own programs can’t provide?

My answer, in a word: perspective.

Attend the WAAE Summit

07-10-2024

What sounds better than a trip to Athens in October? How about the chance to meet and learn from arts educators from around the world?

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