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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AIM’s Music Capsules Offer Snapshots of How We Learn

Fiona Cunningham, Director, Academy for Impact through Music (AIM)

06-07-2023

If you’re a teaching artist, or have ever been one, you’ve probably wondered: Should I always take the lead in the learning process? Are there ways students can take the lead sometimes? What’s the best way for my students to learn?

Such questions are often the focus of “The Firebird Fellowship,” the program at the heart of the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM), a global innovation lab for changemakers tackling educational inequality through music education.

NAfME Report: Divisive Concepts Laws and Music Education

05-17-2023

Regressive lawmaking in the U.S. has led some music educators to feel unsafe talking about race, gender, or history in the classroom. In response, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) a published a must-read report earlier this year on Divisive Concepts Laws (DCL) – legislative and executive orders that restrict teaching and learning activities related to race, gender, sexuality, and U.S. history—and their impact on music educators across the U.S.

Applications Open for the Global Student Prize

03-15-2023

Attention community leaders, music educators, and band and choir directors: here is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the young people who go above and beyond in your programs.

Authentic Assessments: Prioritizing the Whole Student

Diogo Pereira, Founder and Executive Director, Harmony Project Phoenix

02-01-2023

Authentic assessments are projects that engage students in their own learning journeys and can be implemented by all ages and classes in the program throughout the academic school year. At the Harmony Project Phoenix, these authentic assessments focus particularly on Autonomy, Creativity, and Empathy. For example, in the Empathy assessment, students lead the project, with teachers serving as facilitators.

SEYO 2022’s Young Change Makers

Esther Akinyemi, Harmonie Foundation, Gabriel Nobre, Orquesta Geraçao, and Carlos Fontán, Pedagogic Director and General Manager, SEYO 2022

09-07-2022

Through a lot of note-taking, conversation, and, eventually, a vote, we settled on two questions that would guide our week of collaborative inquiry: “How can we improve the transmission of emotional message through music?” and “How can we provide musical opportunities for students who may not otherwise have them?”

Finding Their Voice: OrKidstra’s KidComposers

Margaret Maria Tobolowska, OrKidstra Cofounder and Teaching Artist, in collaboration with the OrKidstra Team

07-06-2022

When a dedicated youth music organization starts brainstorming, the sky opens with possibilities. Such was the lead-up to the creation of KidComposers, a natural extension of OrKidstra’s online Improv Explorers program.

International Youth Fellowship Open to Young Changemakers

05-04-2022

Founded just before the pandemic, #LearningPlanet has spent the past two years connecting educators across the world who work with young people to effect social and environmental change. You know the arts are an essential piece of that puzzle—let’s make sure they’re represented in these global conversations.

High School Interns Power East Lake Expression Engine

Leyda Juarez and Libby O’Neil with Axel Gonzalez, Andres Lopez, Yordy Lopez, Ronaldo Lopez Lorenzo, Araceli Reyonoso Reynoso, Floridalma Reynoso Reynoso, Jafeth Ruiz, and Elisa Velasquez

05-04-2022

At Expression Engine, we hire our students. Our students are our expansion plan, our growing capacity, and our future. We hire them as interns at 14, and, since they have already been participating in peer teaching, they are ready to step up. “The Engine” belongs to them, and they know it.

Scenes from the YOLA National Symposium

Libby O’Neil, Executive Director, East Lake Expression Engine

11-03-2021

The work of running an El Sistema-inspired program can sometimes feel intensely lonely. But last weekend at the YOLA National Symposium in Los Angeles, this work felt rich with community—with good music, new friends, and shared experiences. The Symposium’s umbrella theme was, simply, “Change,” and participants approached that theme with joy, experimentation, challenge, and connection.

Join Our Team! Applications Are Open for The Ensemble’s 2022 Ambassador Cohort

10-20-2021

Over the past few years, our Ensemble Ambassador initiative has blossomed into a lively, collaborative space for young people across the world to share their perspectives in our field. They’ve ruminated on pandemic learning and life in general; shared playlists of their current favorite songs; written beautifully about their favorite places to visit; and even led a session at the El Sistema USA Symposium and Seminario. In finding and raising their voices, this group is just scratching the surface of what they can achieve.

We are now accepting applications for our 2022 Ambassador cohort!

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