Community Development and Creative Placemaking

 
The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.
 
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Curation, Not Composition: Strategies for Healthy Collaboration in the Classroom

Mike Roberts, composer and sound artist specializing in electronic, choral, and community music; Founder/Head of the Electronic & Produced Music Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, U.K.

05-01-2024

It was during a choir rehearsal, at age nine, that I decided to become a composer. Choir was an oasis of joy in an otherwise difficult school experience; I simply lived for each opportunity to sing. Since then, it’s been my joy to witness, time and time again, music’s transformative power in community—never more so than in communities of singers, and never more powerfully than when those singers are empowered to compose their own songs.

From the Embers of a São Paulo Favela, Music Grows

Mauricio Cruz, Institutional Development Manager, Instituto Baccarelli

03-05-2024

For over 27 years, the Brazilian nonprofit NGO Instituto Baccarelli has been supporting social work with children and young people in vulnerable situations in the favela of Heliópolis, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The Institute has a dramatic founding story: in 1996, after a massive fire devastated the favela, the esteemed choral director Maestro Silvio Baccarelli was moved to begin giving free violin lessons to children whose families had been displaced by the disaster. Shortly afterwards, the small string ensemble that originated the Baccarelli Institute was formed.

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

Patrick Scafidi, Executive Editor, The Ensemble, in conversation with Lucas Dols, Founder/Director, 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

Joanna Priwieziencew, Head of Ghetto Classics Dance, Nairobi, Kenya

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

Fenia Biniari, Communications Manager, El Sistema Greece

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’

Vince J. C. Reyes, Director, Inetnon Gefpå’go, as told to The Ensemble

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…

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