The Ambassadors’ 2020 Online Musical Pen Pal Project: Part 2

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

Regions

Africa

Asia/Oceania

Europe

Latin America

North America

Topics

Teaching & Learning

Program Design

Student Voice & Leadership

Community Building

Collaborations

Funding & Support

Perspectives & Collective Action

News & Resources

The Ambassadors’ 2020 Online Musical Pen Pal Project: Part 2

01-06-2021

Throughout the month of November, The World Ensemble Ambassadors organized a pen pal project among five programs scattered across the globe. The project involved musical improvisation activities, games on Zoom, and one-on-one communication between pen pals. It culminated in a creative activity in early December wherein each pen pal group created short videos summarizing their experiences with the project. Below, you can read two Ambassadors’ reflections on the project and view their final videos. 

Pedro (USA) on Week 4:  

The Pen Pal Project was conceived when my colleagues decided that we should find a way to connect our different programs. In the following three months, we discussed organization and lesson plans while partnering students from our programs via Zoom. The Ambassador meetings also consisted of party games and friendly conversation.  
 
For our final sessions, we decided to collaborate on a final creative output that would help conclude our meetings. We played more party games and spent the rest of the meeting creating a poem with live music accompaniment. The meeting was recorded and then edited by Matthew, our Ambassador from the U.K. We share the recording in order to demonstrate our dedication to connecting musicians from various backgrounds and across the world.  

Group 1 Title: “Ghetto Classics (Kenya), Harmony Project (USA), and Orchestras for All (UK)” 

Caption: “Video Editor: Matthew (UK)” 

Mary (Uganda) on the project as a whole: 

During the Pen Pal Project, I learned so many things. One of them is that people can connect through music even when they are in different countries. I was able to appreciate different ways of practicing music in different cultures, made more interesting by the fact that everyone used different instruments. 

I enjoyed the meetings where we shared about music, what instruments we each played, and what the instruments sounded like. It has been amazing to be paired with the Ambassadors and other people in this worldwide program.  

Group 2 Title: “Sistema Utah (USA) and Architects of Music (Uganda)” 

Caption: “Video Editor: Hannah (USA)” 

Architects of Music, Ghetto Classics, Harmony Project, January 2021, Orchestras for All, Sistema Utah

Related Content

Share

ABOUT US MASTHEAD THE AMBASSADORS THE ARCHIVES SUBSCRIBE CONTACT
© Copyright 2022 Ensemble News