Community MusicWorks

 
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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Planning for Our Future Building: Intersections of Mission and a New Set of Challenges

Sebastian Ruth, Founder/Director, Community MusicWorks

08-03-2022

The celebration and cheer were well warranted. But the deeper and more challenging effort of this project has been one of bridging—bridging our organizational values with the structures of fundraising and the construction industry.

MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett Give High-Impact Arts Organizations Transformational Funding Gifts

07-06-2021

MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett are gifting $2.739 billion to 268 organizations that work to support and center new voices and “build power from within communities.” In a short post on her blog titled “Seeding by Ceding,” Scott explains her perspective, describing how wealth has established and maintained systems of inequity, and advocating for donors to be decentralized from processes of change.

CMW Students Create Album for Local Charity

05-04-2021

As many programs learned over this past year, few aspects of our work outweigh the importance of showing up for our communities—even when that takes us away from music education. It’s even possible you’ve created, or considered creating, a special fundraising event to raise money for non-musical programs that your students care about. On Friday, April 16, students of Community MusicWorks’ Daily Orchestra Program found a way to merge their work with community giving, presenting a fun album of favorite animal songs to raise funds for the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the students’ choice of beneficiary). The premiere included meeting pets, watching a puppet show, and learning to make balloon animals. What a strong citizenship lesson for students. Visit CMW’s website to learn more about Animal Songs, and watch their creation on CMW’s YouTube channel.

Editorial: June 2020

Dennie Palmer Wolf, Researcher & Writer, WolfBrown, Cambridge, MA

06-02-2020

On my COVID-era daily hike, I found myself behind a woman on her cell phone. At first, I resented the noise; then I began to listen. “Hello, this is Ms. F., Leila’s violin teacher. How are you?…How is she? Does she know she has messages from her music class? We are doing song-writing, and she would be so good at it…Yes, I’d love to tell her.” I realized I was hearing a new kind of musical alliance between teachers, students, and families.

The Lewis Prize for Music 2020 Announces Awardees

02-04-2020

The Lewis Prize for Music 2020 Awardees have been announced. The Lewis Prize believes that music in the lives of young people is a catalytic force to drive positive change in society. Each of the awardees is doing exemplary work to build community, foster engaged citizens and support the holistic growth of young people through music. Learn more about the ten inspiring changemakers here. A special congratulations to Lewis Prize 2020 Awardee Sebastian Ruth, Founder and Artistic Director of Community MusicWorks. Sebastian recently penned The Ensemble’s editorial in November, which you can read here. His Lewis Prize will support a new alumni fellowship and leadership of the MusicWorks Network of community-based music programs, which collaborate across the eastern United States to spread and deepen the work with and for the youth they serve.

Editorial: November 2019

Sebastian Ruth, Community MusicWorks, Founder & Artistic Director

11-02-2019

In 2019, many organizations in the United States are examining societal oppressions that affect our communities, and we look for ways to adopt new practices in our educational spaces around diversity, equity, and inclusion. To make progress, it’s critical to examine our work in new ways if we are to have an impact in countering oppressive practices. 

Aesthetic Perspectives from a Musical Viewpoint

Chloë Kline, Community MusicWorks; Education Director and Resident Musician

10-01-2019

The concept of art as an act of revolution – as a means to foment change, spur consciousness, and imagine new realities – is as old as art itself. For example, drums would sound to unseen others, and cave images explored individuals’ relationships to known and unknown animal species.

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