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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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In South Africa, a Marimba Band Moves with the Music

Thandeka Dlamini, Band Manager, Organizer, and Coach, Goede Hoop Marimba Band

06-03-2026

Since 2014, the Goede Hoop Marimba Band has operated in Boksburg, Gauteng, a small South African town in the smallest South African province. The band started in 2014 at the Goede Hoop Primary School, the hub where all practice takes place, as a way of keeping children out of the streets after school, committing them to something that could positively impact their future, and strengthening their community bonds.

Erasmus+ Project Finds Funding

06-03-2026

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

Expanding the Lullaby Project in Greece

06-03-2026

For nine years, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece—in partnership with El Sistema Greece and New York’s Carnegie Hall—has presented works from The Lullaby Project, in which people with diverse experiences work with composers and songwriters to transform personal stories about relationships with children into original musical works.

Atlanta Music Project Launches a World Music Festival

06-03-2026

The FIFA World Cup is the world’s most watched and celebrated sporting event, and Atlanta, Georgia, will host three of the tournament’s matches this year.

Hosting Fire Up! in Athens: A Week of Collective Practice and Exchange

Angeliki Georgokosta, General Manager, and Lydia Margari, Ensembles Manager, El Sistema Greece

05-06-2026

When the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM) suggested bringing the Fire Up! residency to Athens, we felt both excitement and a strong sense of responsibility. Our space is deeply meaningful to us; El Sistema Greece is a vibrant community grounded in trust, creativity, and daily collaboration, and inviting colleagues from across Europe into that community felt acutely personal. The residency itself was intense and demanding, with constant transitions between workshops, rehearsals, peer exchanges, and shared experiences. It also afforded us a rare opportunity: a chance to be students in our own teaching spaces, and to see those spaces through the eyes of our peers.

After Years of Outreach, Brass for Africa Puts Down Roots

Ronald Kabuye, Country Director, Brass for Africa – Uganda

05-06-2026

For years, Brass for Africa has worked toward one powerful goal: using music to empower all young people and their communities to fulfill their potential and thrive. Since 2009, that mission has come to life through an outreach model, wherein music and life-skills teachers make long, often demanding journeys across communities.

It worked. It reached thousands. But in 2026, we’re trying something new: the Hub Model.

EDITORIAL
Practicing Collaboration

Angelica Cortez, Executive Director, Suzuki Association of the Americas

05-06-2026

In arts education programs, we tend to work with our heads down. Doing our work every day is enough: it takes more time than we have to create our lesson plans, to build healthy organizational infrastructure that is adaptive and responsive, or even to collaborate with the colleagues within our own organizations. As artists and arts leaders, we forget to look up and out. But as various crises combine forces to pull us away from each other, our need for collective work is not something we can afford to have on a backburner. It needs to be a central focus. We need to build strong local networks and to diversify our collaborators. 

We need to connect—with fellow arts organizations, and with organizations we might never consider in our daily work.

In Rhode Island, a Music Center Becomes a Community Haven

Sebastian Ruth, Founder and Artistic Director, Community MusicWorks

04-01-2026

Last weekend, in the U.S. city of Providence, Rhode Island, the renowned pianist Emanuel Ax visited Community MusicWorks for a pair of concerts in collaboration with our students and our professional ensemble in residence. Manny’s visit helped to celebrate our CMW Center, which was only a dream when he first came in 2017.

During Manny’s first visit, one concert took place in a neighborhood taqueria, and another on the basketball court of a nearby community center. In many ways, the concerts last weekend marked the new chapter we find ourselves in, welcoming children, families, musicians, and special guest artists into our purpose-built center.

Fifteen Years After Disaster, a Children’s Music Festival Continues to Rebuild Community in Soma, Japan

Yutaka Kikugawa, Executive Director and Founder, El Sistema Japan

04-01-2026

For me, the festival brought back memories of a cold winter day in December 2011, when I met with Soma City Council officials to explore the possibility of launching Japan’s first El Sistema–inspired program. At that time, children in Soma were still deeply affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear power plant accident. Many had lost family members and friends; many faced widespread stigma and discrimination resulting from radiation contamination across Fukushima Prefecture, including Soma City. I was serving as Chief Coordinator of UNICEF’s post-disaster operations.

Suggested Reading: Music as a Social Prescription

 

 

04-01-2026

“Social Music as a Prescription for Maintaining Wellness” is an article by renowned U.S. jazz musician Jon Batiste and Joanne Loewy, Director of the Department of Music Therapy and Professor at New York City’s Icahn School of Medicine.

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