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EDITORIAL
The Sound of the World

Anis Barnat, Co-founder, El Sistema Greece; Managing Director, Community Arts Network (CAN)

09-04-2024

National and international youth orchestra and choir festivals instill a collaborative mindset in their participants and provide all attendees with powerful, lasting memories. But they are time-consuming to organize, requiring logistical know-how and well-considered, family-flexible safeguarding policies for the children and young people. It’s not only tiring; it’s expensive. And program leaders know firsthand that students progress with or without these national or international festivals. So why bother? What do they offer to young people that their own programs can’t provide?

My answer, in a word: perspective.

The Citizens of the World Festival

Lauren Rausch, YOLA National Festival Violin Faculty

09-04-2024

For the last eight years, I’ve coached violinists for the YOLA National Festival. Each summer, it is a remarkable thing to walk into the first sectional on the first day and witness an exceptional level of preparation from 18 violinists who, for the most part, don’t know each other and have never played together—a group of students that have made a commitment to each other before even meeting one another. This is what defines the YOLA National Festival: the dedication and integrity of all participants, a spirit that lives in the YNF students and also in the staff and the incredible faculty who return each summer. It is a special and profoundly devoted community, something I have not witnessed elsewhere.

National Seminario Ravinia: Orchestras For All

Isaac Sinnett, Senior Associate Director, Ravinia Reach Teach Play

09-04-2024

On the evening of July 10, the Ravinia Festival’s historic Pavilion stage glowed with the combined talents of the 130 students of National Seminario Ravinia. It was the final night of the 2024 Seminario, just in its second year. Students aged 11–18 from 43 El Sistema-inspired organizations around the world—including those from 17 U.S. states, Mexico, Canada, Greece, and Sweden—had gathered for four days of intensive orchestral training and mentorship from members of the Seminario Orchestra Partner, the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F). For many of the students, it was their first time having such an experience. 

International ‘Chords of Harmony’ Resound in Barcelona

Tricia Tunstall, Advisory Editor and Co-Founder, The Ensemble, with “Chords of Harmony” participants

07-10-2024

“Throughout the entire concert, the young musicians were free to laugh. And so was the audience…Music was being felt and lived in another sphere.”

Isn’t this a description of how we would all love our students to experience music, at some point in their learning journey?

Arts Educators in India Drop Old Habits, and Their Kids Flourish

Rathi, Director, Slam Out Loud

07-10-2024

In 2016, Jigyasa Labroo was teaching in the conflict area of Kashmir, India. She brought a poetry exercise to her class of 60 girls that called for them to express their emotions. Jigyasa expected the regular childhood emotions of joy, wonder, and friendship to emerge; what came out instead was mostly pain, anger, isolation, and sadness. The room that day held a great deal of tension and hurt—but also some catharsis. At the end of class, she realized how important it was to create spaces for children to express themselves safely through the arts.

The Glasshouse Introduces Free Music Pass for Newborns

07-10-2024

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music is serious about helping children get an early start on musical enrichment.

YOLA Gives ‘Collective Composition’ New Meaning

Ensemble Editorial Team

07-10-2024

We know that many programs use collective composition as a creative boost for students. But an experiment at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA Institute Children’s Orchestra was a new one for us at The Ensemble.

Attend the WAAE Summit

07-10-2024

What sounds better than a trip to Athens in October? How about the chance to meet and learn from arts educators from around the world?

Free Lesson Plans from Smithsonian Folkways

 

 

05-01-2024

Are you a music teacher looking to diversify your lesson plans? The Smithsonian Folkways website hosts a digital database of free music lesson plans from around the world.

The Role of Music in Language Revitalization in Juneau, Alaska

Helen Ella, France-based musician, educator, and arts advocate; MBA, Global Leaders Institute ’23, and Sophia Butler, band/orchestra teacher in Minneapolis Public Schools; MBA, Global Leaders Institute ’23

03-05-2024

With fewer than 15 fluent Lingít speakers left in the world, there is an urgent initiative to revitalize and sustain this language of the native Alaskan people in this area. In 2021, JAMM began to partner with elders in the Lingít community, and also with a number of organizations—Sealaska Corporation, Sealaska Heritage Institute, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, Douglas Indian Association, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, and the University of Alaska Southeast—with the goal of integrating Lingít language, values, and culture into its established violin program.

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