Reunirnos

In my doctoral work, I did an instrumental case study of the Music Box Village in New Orleans. This alternative music space wears many hats. It functions as a music venue, learning space, playground, and much more. It includes interactive art installation and instruments made from salvaged materials that form a kind of sonic playground. It’s also widely welcoming: when I was observing grade-four children playing in the space, I noticed that multiple intelligences were accepted and fostered. 

Two outstanding youth orchestra programs are now accepting applications for their summer camps.

RESONANCES marked the completion of its multi-year research project with a new report published in English and Portuguese: “Intercultural Resonances among Music Teachers: Their Impacts on Practices and Teaching Methods.”

Expressions of interest for the 12th SIMM-seminar, happening May 4–6 in Brussels, Belgium, are due February 5.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus (JYC) is a music and dialogue program for Israeli and Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem. We bring young people from East and West Jerusalem into the same room each week to sing together, practice structured dialogue, and build the leadership skills needed to navigate a deeply unequal and polarized reality.

If you work in music for social change, none of that is conceptually new—“music builds connection” is something we all believe. What has surprised us over time is how much the container matters.

While our daily lives are rattled by increasing global instability, polarization, and apathy, culture workers working toward youth empowerment and social change share many of the same questions. How do we empower young people without transferring unreasonable responsibility? How do we equip and motivate while acknowledging legitimate, sometimes harsh realities? How do we facilitate interconnectedness, in times of global dehumanization?

Applications are open through February 28 for the Kuonyesha Art Fund, which welcomes proposals from artists and groups in Africa for creative projects that promote community collaboration and address social issues.

Musicians in healthcare settings will benefit from this boatload of resources, shared via the University of Florida’s Arts in Health Today newsletter.

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?”

Beloved singer-songwriter Raffi recently released a new song “ABC Democracy.”