Music for Social Change

After months of work behind the scenes and four days together in Dundee, Scotland, a 95-musician orchestra made up of Big Noise and YOLA musicians—plus 100 younger Big Noise members forming a choir—came together on stage at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall for the Festival’s Family Concert on August 16, 2026.

It was a beautiful moment. But even before they ever shared the stage, the young musicians from Scotland and Los Angeles had achieved something remarkable.

Music possesses the power to transcend borders and unite hearts. That’s why, last month, a hundred children in Vanimo, Papua New Guinea packed their instruments to bring their music to Jayapura, Indonesia. It was a historic milestone: the first international tour for the students in the Queen of Paradise Project, launched seven years ago by Music Director Jesus Briceno with the support of Father Miguel de la Calle. Father Martin Prado is now the CEO of the project.

TATI (Teaching Artist Training Institute) is launching its inaugural Leaders Fellowship Program, a six-month professional learning experience for leaders of community music and El Sistema-inspired programs.

El Sistema USA’s Youth Leadership Initiative brings together young musicians and program leaders in the US to develop and spread leadership and life skills.

“It gave me great peace of mind to know that there are such capable and inspiring people whom I can turn to when I face problems that I cannot solve on my own.”

This was how one of my peers reflected on our three days together in Milan last August. Her words got to the heart of a question I had been thinking about for some time: 

What keeps a network alive?

There are seasons in any movement. The beginning, that electric moment when a new idea catches fire, is unforgettable. So is the end, when a movement gains a permanent foothold in society. But the middle—the developing stage—is different. The middle is where the path is no longer clear, where the just cause and the strategies for seeing it through are both tested. It’s my impression that, in many places of the world, El Sistema-inspired programs find themselves in that adolescent stage.

These growing years are critical to our future as a movement—just as the adolescent years are critical to our students’ growth. Here are a few discoveries being made by U.S. programs I’m familiar with, shared with the hope that they resonate with programs around the world.

Every other week this season, I wrote updates to my Los Angeles Philharmonic colleagues—a small, internal note meant to keep our broader institution abreast of what the Learning Department was up to. On the surface, it could be viewed as mundane: a calendar snapshot, a few highlights, the ever-important statistics everyone needs. But as I scrolled back through nine months of messages, I realized the depth they carry. These were not only stories about music lessons, concerts, and special events. They were testaments to the impact of connection built across programs, networks, and industries.

About 15 years ago, when I was on tour in Africa, I was lucky enough to meet the late Bob Collymore, Founder/CEO of Safaricom Kenya and one of the most inspiring people on the planet. I performed at the Safaricom headquarters for all the employees; Bob was immediately enthusiastic about bringing more jazz to Nairobi, and he decided to launch the Safaricom International Jazz Festival. He organized the festival setup, and I helped him with the programming.

Many years of research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health on Big Noise Govenhill provide the deepest evidence of our field’s social and economic impact.

The new Music Inclusion Hub (MIH) is a one-stop resource center that provides access to racial- and gender-inclusion educational materials for students of all grade levels, from educational videos and interactive composer databases to curricula and original student arrangements.