Student Voice & Leadership

 
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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Using Circles to Build Community and Connection in CYD Spaces

John Weiss, Director of Strategic Initiatives, and Lori Roddy, Executive Director, Neutral Zone

03-05-2025

It’s 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon at the Neutral Zone, a creative arts and leadership center for teenagers in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. Twenty-four young people and six staff gather in a circle of chairs in the B-Side Venue (a multi-purpose program space that also serves as a 400-person concert venue). As a disco ball glimmers overhead, Ash, a teen participant and high school sophomore, volunteers with an opening question: “What did you like to do at recess when you were a kid in school?”

Trombone Shorty Builds Musical Ties between U.S. and Cuba

03-05-2025

Musicians wield powerful tools for strengthening diplomatic relations: their instruments.

Powered by Youth: More Than a Catchphrase

Gergely Bándi, Project Manager, Instrumental Program Leader, and music teacher, Superar Hungary

03-05-2025

When I received the news that, through an exchange program, I could spend four months at Zumix (a creative youth development program in Boston, Massachusetts, USA), I checked their website. I read the phrase “Powered by Youth” and thought, “Sure, it sounds good, but it’s probably just a catchy motto.”

But when I arrived in Boston and attended my first Zumix event, a Sunday evening concert at a local park, I realized those words were true.

ESUSA Regional Gatherings

03-05-2025

El Sistema USA is hosting two regional gatherings this year, bringing together program leaders, teaching artists, and students from across the country for community-building and professional development.

Transforming Young Lives Through Music: Lessons from Five Years of Impact in Creative Youth Development

Alexis Jackson, Data Analysis Officer, The Lewis Prize for Music

03-05-2025

Music has the power to transform lives, strengthen communities, and challenge the systems that shape them—but what does that transformative process actually look like? For the past five years, The Lewis Prize for Music (TLPM) has been addressing this question by supporting organizations that harness music’s power to uplift and empower young people. 

At Sirkhane Social Circus, Cultural Cooperation Is No High-Wire Act

Sahba Aminikia, San Francisco-based Iranian American composer; Founder, Flying Carpet Festival

03-05-2025

Sirkhane Social Circus is more than just a place to learn circus skills—it is a sanctuary of joy, healing, and creative expression for children who have endured the trauma of war, displacement, and social instability. Based in Mardin, Turkey, near the Syrian border, Sirkhane provides a safe and nurturing environment where children from diverse backgrounds—Syrian, Turkish, Iraqi, and Kurdish—come together to learn, perform, and play.

ESUSA Introduces Student Opportunities Board

02-05-2025

Our partners at El Sistema USA recently launched an invaluable resource for students.

AIM Performance Videos Challenge the Status Quo

02-05-2025

The Academy for Impact through Music‘s performance videos invite teaching artists to challenge the status quo in rehearsal and concert formats.

At a Canadian Military Base, a Núcleo Answers an Overlooked Need

Tricia Tunstall, Contributing Editor, The Ensemble; Ken MacLeod, Founder, Sistema New Brunswick; and Kenn Mainville, CEO, Sistema New Brunswick

02-05-2025

“Where can we have the most impact?”

This question will resonate with many Ensemble readers, especially those who’ve thought about starting a new program or adding more sites to their program.

For the leaders of the Canadian network Sistema New Brunswick (Sistema NB), it sparked an unusual answer: “A military base!”

Two weeks, 13 concerts, 22 musicians: The Ghetto Classics All-Stars Tour Kenya

Joanna Priwieziencew, Head of Ghetto Classics Dance, Nairobi, Kenya

02-05-2025

Nairobi, Kenya, November 2024.

A small room bordering East Africa’s largest dumpsite. Heat scorches through tin roofs as dust rises from the cement floor. Inside, 20 Kenyan musicians focus on Belgian saxophonist Toine Thys: they take in his every gesture and expression, eager not to miss a note. In the drum section, Canadian drummer and pedagogue Karl Jannuska passes his drumsticks to a Kenyan musician and picks up the shakers. Together, they are about to carve the thick air with an Afro jazz beat.

They’re also about to embark on their first national tour.

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