Perspectives & Collective Action

 
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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Equity and Access in the Arts

02-15-2023

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is taking steps toward realizing its 2022 Equity Action Plan to increase arts participation and engagement in historically underserved U.S. communities.

Stories, Not Statistics: Fact-Checking the Impact of Nairobi’s Ghetto Classics

Ginanne Brownell, author and journalist, London, U.K.

02-01-2023

I had to come to terms with the idea that some stories would have to be taken at face value, and then figure out how to present them so that readers would understand they were based on what I was told, not on what I could actually verify. Although many stats didn’t exist, just being at a rehearsal on a given Sunday could make even the biggest cynics question their critiques.

Teaching Mutual Understanding and Peace: The United World Colleges

Graciela Briceno, Education Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development; Founder, Boston Music Project

01-04-2023

What if there were an option for students—even those who could not afford additional years of school—to continue their “social development through music” journey? As it happens, there is one: United World Colleges (UWC), a consortium of higher education institutions that prioritizes—as does our field—peace, collaboration, and mutual understanding.

Seeds of a Music Program Sprout in Congo

Irismer Kasamira, violinist; Founder, El Sistema Congo

12-07-2022

In 2021, I started doing online research about great violinists, recorder players, and orchestras. On Facebook, I came across a gentleman named Roberto Zambrano, a great musician and educator and a good person. I said to myself: “I have just found someone with whom to share my ideas.”

Finding Common Ground through Curriculum Design

Brian Bersh, Music Department Head, Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia, PA; Cohort Member, Global Leaders Program 2022

11-02-2022

Too often, curriculum design is reserved for a few administrators or lead teachers, even though it is integral to understanding and supporting musicianship development. But this process has the potential to unlock incredible opportunities for collaboration in our field, unifying stakeholders by giving everyone an equal voice in the conversation.

Growing Orchestras across Bolivia

Miguel Angel Salazar Hidalgo, President and Artistic Director, Fundación Musical BRAVURA

10-05-2022

In all of Bolivia, we have just two semi-professional orchestras. One of them was founded this year in the city of Cochabamba, which does not even have a theater that can accommodate a large symphonic concert. In fact, there are only four such theaters in the entire country. 

Yet music perseveres.

Ten Years

Rodrigo Guerrero, Program Director, Boston BEAM at New England Conservatory of Music; former Deputy Director of International Affairs, Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar

10-05-2022

Ten years is a powerful time span for many things, from children to marriages, partnerships to memoirs; the roundness of a decade has powerful meanings. In our field, it tends to signify the completion of two very important cycles. First, it represents our first generation of students (programs often start working with students when they are 7–9 years of age, meaning that many of those initial students are now graduating from high school).

Play the World Game (and Solve the World’s Problems)

10-05-2022

If you enjoy games that reward the sort of inventive thinking we do best, we have a doozy for you. And it’s being played on a global stage.

Integrating Kingian Nonviolence and Music for Social Change

Keane Southard, composer, pianist, and teacher

09-07-2022

Many are familiar with MLK’s use of nonviolence in the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, but what exactly is Kingian Nonviolence? For King, nonviolence was not simply the absence of violence but the presence of justice. Nonviolence is not passively submitting to violence but actively fighting for justice using non-violent means.

Showing Up as a Global Field: A UNESCO Invitation for Our Readers

The Ensemble Editorial Team

08-03-2022

We say we are a global field. But are we? An open call from UNESCO—which you may not have heard about—presents us with an unprecedented opportunity to move in that direction.

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