Programas musicales

El Sistema USA just opened the applications for the 2027-28 Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), a year-long cohort that brings together program leaders and young musicians as co-learners.

The image is jarring: a vibrant green lawn scattered with brass instruments in various forms of disrepair, some rusted, others broken or bent. A few rest in old cases with broken hinges. This video was shared by Kyewalyanga Fredrick (Freddie), founder of Saved by Music Foundation, a nonprofit in Uganda that serves 111 children between the ages of 8 and 16. Alongside shelter, food, healthcare, and school fees, the program teaches music through the Elgon Youth Brass Band that rehearses every day. Unfortunately, like a majority of programs in the region, Saved by Music Foundation does not have enough playable instruments for all of its students.

When the team at Community MusicWorks built the program’s new home, they brought their longtime luthier into their building.

Celebrating 15 years of the program, “Exploring Identity” is one of three recently released playlists featuring performances from Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

One-day choirs are growing in popularity.

There are seasons in any movement. The beginning, that electric moment when a new idea catches fire, is unforgettable. So is the end, when a movement gains a permanent foothold in society. But the middle—the developing stage—is different. The middle is where the path is no longer clear, where the just cause and the strategies for seeing it through are both tested. It’s my impression that, in many places of the world, El Sistema-inspired programs find themselves in that adolescent stage.

These growing years are critical to our future as a movement—just as the adolescent years are critical to our students’ growth. Here are a few discoveries being made by U.S. programs I’m familiar with, shared with the hope that they resonate with programs around the world.

The new Music Inclusion Hub (MIH) is a one-stop resource center that provides access to racial- and gender-inclusion educational materials for students of all grade levels, from educational videos and interactive composer databases to curricula and original student arrangements.

Sistema Europe reports that their Erasmus+ KA153 project “Music and Social Action in Europe: Practices in Exchange” has officially been approved.

Two SIMM (Social Impact of Music Making) research seminars are welcoming attendees.

After budget cuts, a U.S. school is getting creative to help more students participate in music.