Professional Development

In October, ten teachers from Musica Para la Vida (Music for Life) in Mexico traveled to Berlin, Germany to participate in an international seminar, organized in part by the Federal Association of Cultural Education for Children and Youth of Germany.

A model to adopt?  This was the first year of the L.A. Orchestra Fellowship, a two-year intensive for musicians who play violin, viola and cello.

Registration is now open for the 2019 El Sistema Academy in Stockholm, Sweden!  The 3rd annual El Sistema Academy will take place at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm on 25-27 January 2019.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) with The Klarman Family Foundation kick off the second cohort of the META Fellowship this month.  The term stands for Music Educators and Teaching Artists, and it is a two year professional development program for about 60 Fellows, including faculty from Sistema-inspired programs in the state.

Each Saturday, nearly one hundred young people from all corners of the Philippines come together for a day of music-making with the Orchestra for Filipino Youth (OFY) at the Rockwell Business Center in Metro Manila. Even though some students have to catch early morning boats in order to get there—as early as 5 o’clock sometimes—the musicians are prepared and attentive come the downbeat at 10.

How do you design, fund, and lead a great community arts project?  If you live in New Zealand, or want to learn from its example, you now have good answers.

The Colombian project “Music at the Borders” was created to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the border areas of the country.  The project is run by the country’s national Sistema program, the National Batuta Foundation, and financed by the Colombian Chancellery within the framework of Colombia’s Plan Fronteras para la Prosperidad (Border Plan for Prosperity). 

The World Youth Choir (WYC) is an educational and social experience aimed at talented young singers between the ages of 17 and 26, from all over the world. Each year the WYC hosts summer and winter sessions, organised in different countries, taking young musicians on tour under the direction of renowned conductors.

El Sistema Kenya (ESK) has just celebrated its fourth year of working with children in Nairobi. ESK currently has three staff members who handle program logistics and finances, and six teachers who teach violin, clarinet, flute, recorder, singing, and music theory. They are working with over 200 children in three different slums in Nairobi.