Editorials

 
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

Editorial: September 2020

Calida Jones, Director of Engagement, The Hartt School; Managing Partner, CNJ Associates

09-01-2020

Since March 13, life has changed drastically. Arts institutions and businesses across the country shut down. Schools emptied. Everyone turned to the internet for visibility, accessibility, and relevance.

Editorial: Music, Standing Still

Laura Hassler, Founder and Director, Musicians Without Borders

08-05-2020

A guest editorial during a global pandemic. What to write, what to say? For every person and every organization dedicated to bringing people together with music: what does this pandemic mean for our work if we are literally prevented from bringing people together with music?

Editorial: July, 2020

Monique Van Willingh, Director, Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program, Longy School of Music, Los Angeles, CA

07-07-2020

I had my first U.S. protest experience in Los Angeles, CA, after the murder of Michael Brown, Jr. I could hear but not see the protesters behind rows of policemen in riot gear. As circling helicopters kept me awake that night, I realized that I felt safer in my home country of South Africa, although I had directly experienced racism, gender-based violence, and crime there.

Strengthening Our Shared Humanity through Music

Gerald Wirth, Cofounder and Artistic Director, Superar; President and Artistic Director, Vienna Boys Choir

07-01-2020

This school year and concert season end in strange circumstances for all of us around the world. For me, this momentous—and for so many, catastrophic—“pause” is, in part, a time to reflect on the value and nature of the work I do. I feel very fortunate in my many professional activities; it is as a choral conductor, however, that I am most invested in trying to make a difference in the world.

Editorial: June 2020

Dennie Palmer Wolf, Researcher & Writer, WolfBrown, Cambridge, MA

06-02-2020

On my COVID-era daily hike, I found myself behind a woman on her cell phone. At first, I resented the noise; then I began to listen. “Hello, this is Ms. F., Leila’s violin teacher. How are you?…How is she? Does she know she has messages from her music class? We are doing song-writing, and she would be so good at it…Yes, I’d love to tell her.” I realized I was hearing a new kind of musical alliance between teachers, students, and families.

Editorial: Pivoting in Response to Community Need

Jason Steinberg, Executive Director, International Sports and Music Project

06-01-2020

COVID-19 is creating unprecedented challenges all over the world. As nonprofit leaders, we must decide how to continue having a meaningful impact while bolstering our organizations to last through COVID-19 and beyond.

Editorial: May 2020

Jose Luis Hernandez, Founder/Director, Sistema Tulsa, OK

05-05-2020

We are living in a moment of unprecedented anxiety. Those of us who know and teach the musical arts as means of expression have been busy trying to summon music’s healing powers. We know instinctively that music is the place we must go to and invite people into, to be soothed and comforted. It is one of our spiritual practices. Leonard Bernstein wrote about this at another time when our nation mourned, after the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy: “We must make music more devotedly, more intensely, than ever before,” he said. This time is different. The context in which we are to make music has changed. We have been challenged to deal with the fact that our healing business must be conducted on the Internet.

Pondering Inclusion in Times of COVID-19

Dr. Susanne Burns, Development Consultant and Senior Arts Leader in England

05-04-2020

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a Global Public Health Emergency. We are living in unprecedented times and facing one of the most widespread public health emergencies we have ever faced as a worldwide community.

Editorial: April 2020

Hillary Harder, ECoSistema Coordinator, Elkhart County, IN 

04-07-2020

For the past year, I have enjoyed meeting with a group of educators and administrators from the El Sistema USA community who seek to collectively define “equity.” Our goal is to educate ourselves about big ideas—systemic access barriers, intersectionality and identity, culturally responsive teaching—and articulate what they mean for us. At the core of these conversations is the idea that El Sistema–inspired programs are uniquely positioned to work toward equity. Maestro Abreu paved the way with his vision of universal access and social change through music education; today, in our North American context, the El Sistema-inspired field must engage with the dynamics of race, class, gender, ability, language, and social factors. If we seek to deeply know and empower our students, these conversations are crucial.

Rediscovering Our Passion and Purpose during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Maria Majno, President, SONG / Sistema in Lombardia; Vice President, Sistema Europe

04-02-2020

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”  One of the best known, most philosophical yet universally accessible passages of the Bible (Ecclesiastes, 3:1) sets a consoling frame. Yet who knows for how many seasons the COVID-19 turmoil will last as an unprecedented challenge? So many questions: Why now? Why was it not possible to avoid, or at least predict, and prepare? Why so many different approaches to one identified enemy? Did any of us expect to see such a catastrophic phenomenon over our lifetimes?

Share

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