Community Healing
The Importance of Free Play in Music Education
Dr. Richard Marsella, Executive Director, Community Music Schools of Toronto
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.
EDITORIAL
Forty Years of Radical Inclusion: What We Can Learn from Lavender Light
Eric Williamson, Artistic Director, Lavender Light Choir; Adjunct Professor, New York University Steinhart School; General Music Teacher, P.S. 32 in Brooklyn, NY, USA
When you hear the phrase “social change through music,” what comes to mind? For many in our field, it means ensembles of student musicians learning to play and sing together.
Sometimes, though, it can mean people of all ages coming together and forging new communities of belonging through music. That’s the nature of my organization: Lavender Light, in New York City.
