the ensemble

 
The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.

Ron Davis Álvarez Named 2024 CNN Hero

09-04-2024

Since 2016, Ron Davis Álvarez has helmed Dream Orchestra, connecting young people, including newly arrived refugees, through ensemble music. This year, his work has been recognized by CNN Heroes, a long-running initiative that honors the creative and selfless efforts of people around the globe to make the world a better place.

Action Research in the Western Balkans: Music and Social Reconciliation

04-03-2024

Can bringing young people from different cultures together, through arts-related experiences, help to promote understanding, communication, and peace building?

This is a question on the minds of many people working in the global field of arts for social change. Over the past few years, my program, The House of Good Tones in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has partnered with two other Balkan programs (SO-DO, in Zagreb, Croatia, and the Music Art Project, in Belgrade, Serbia) on a research project designed to explore this question—a particularly important question in our part of the world.

Impactful Creative Youth Development

02-07-2024

During my 20-plus years of being an arts advocate and leader of music for social change work, I have repeatedly returned to this question: “How can we best convey the scope and complexity of our field’s impactful work to funders and policymakers?” 

I’m confident this is a question many Ensemble readers also ask. Communicating the many benefits for young people, families, and communities that result from our work is more complex than a sound bite.

Safe Spaces in Unsafe Places: Talking with Lucas Dols of Sounds of Change

02-07-2024

When we last spoke to Sounds of Change Founder and Director Lucas Dols, in 2022, he was hopeful about an upcoming year of growth for the organization… Seventeen months later, the world is no less difficult or overwhelming for young people looking to find their way. With a focus on those who are most affected by violence and displacement abroad, we talked with Lucas about the work Sounds of Change is doing to help.

 

Courage and Community at Ghetto Classics Dance

02-07-2024

The river is fighting to flow through the densely settled garbage, scavenged by Korogocho inhabitants. The heat of the sun bounces from the ground, the rising dust fills my eyes, while a gang member greets me in Swahili.

Five years into my work with Ghetto Classics Dance, I am again presented with the opportunity to write about our program.

ESG’s Young Leaders Strike Chords of Empowerment

02-07-2024

On Saturday, November 25, following the International Day for Children’s Rights, El Sistema Greece’s Young Leaders Program welcomed Anna Mertzani, Manager of the Intercultural Center “PYXIDA” of the Greek Council for Refugees.

In Guam, Marrying Past and Future through ‘Beautiful Gatherings’

02-07-2024

Our story begins in 2000, when I first began to teach at a public school in Guam.  I had just come back from studying in the States, where I’d felt increasingly disconnected from my Chamorro identity, and I was teaching social studies and physical education.  I noticed that there were some kids who liked to hang out in my classroom during recess and lunch…

We’re Back!

02-07-2024

AIM’s Music Capsules Offer Snapshots of How We Learn

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.

The Ambassadors’ Exchange: In Our Own Voices

06-07-2023

To complement the “Ambassador (Re)Introductions” published in April, the cohort recorded video introductions for the month of June. Listen to the Ambassadors as they say hello in their native languages, from every corner of the globe.

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