the ensemble

As Sistema Ravinia prepared for in-person learning after the pandemic lockdowns, I attended a Zoom meeting with other incoming high school freshmen, most of whom were good friends. A manager asked us, “This is the first time we’ve had high school students in our program. What would you guys like to see happen?”

I’d been missing the presence and perspective of young people in these gatherings dedicated to arts education, young people’s wellbeing, and community health through the arts. When young people were present, it was most often as performers, and occasionally as panelists alongside adults.

Throughout these events, I had been wondering, “How is it that we continue to position young people as objects of conversation, and not the subject?”

As Executive Director Liz Moulthrop remarked during El Sistema USA’s East Coast Regional Gathering, “Community is our power.” Yet too often programs operate in isolation, brilliant islands of musical striving that rarely connect with the broader archipelago of creative youth development work happening across the world. This siloing, while understandable given resource constraints and logistical challenges, represents a missed opportunity to address our urgent need for unity.

In fact, we must double down on gathering. The practice of community.

In honor of El Sistema’s 50th anniversary, LiberaMusica and publisher Carthusia Edizioni are releasing Tumpa Cu-Cù, a new book introducing young children to ensemble music.

When you hear the phrase “social change through music,” what comes to mind? For many in our field, it means ensembles of student musicians learning to play and sing together.

Sometimes, though, it can mean people of all ages coming together and forging new communities of belonging through music. That’s the nature of my organization: Lavender Light, in New York City.

Teaching artistry is the sleeping giant of social change. 

And that giant is waking up. At least that’s what I claim, in my relentless advocacy for the global field. 

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.

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.

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.

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.