Soundscapes
GUEST PERSPECTIVE
When Art and Music Create a Shared Listening Space
Giovanni Acquilino, 2025 Cohort Member, Global Leaders Institute
What does visual art have to do with listening?
It’s an unusual question—but one that’s well worth exploring, as I discovered recently when I attended Sguardi Paralleli (Parallel Glances) – Art Therapy and Autism: Art as Language, an exhibition held in Alassio, Italy and curated by art therapist Carla Paura.
Showing Up in Crisis Times
Christopher Schroeder, Executive Director, Boston Music Project (Formerly Josiah Quincy Orchestra Program), Boston, MA
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our communities in unimaginable ways. It has exposed great inequities in our society, tested the financial stability of our organizations, and forced programs to rapidly explore new methods of connectivity, storytelling, and fundraising. On the other hand, it has also offered opportunities for programs to demonstrate their resilience. As many educators say, it’s better to show than tell. Right now, our students are watching how we show up for them in times of crisis.
Online Learning In Denver Deepens Relationships
El Sistema Colorado Staff and Teaching Artists
As words like pandemic, quarantine, and social distancing enter our daily vocabulary, El Sistema–inspired programs everywhere are asking the same question: How do we continue making music in the midst of COVID-19? El Sistema Colorado, like so many other organizations, went online.
Guest Perspective
Liam Barnstead, student, Soundscapes; Brayden Hamilton, student, OrchKids
Two students who attended the El Sistema Seminario 2020, in Durham, NC last month, share their experiences at this super-gathering of student musicians from across North Carolina and the Southeast.
Illuminating True Progress for All Students
Reynaldo Ramirez, Program Director, Soundscapes, Newport News,VA
As a Sistema movement, the two main goals we aspire to are musical growth and social growth. We often use some iteration of the motto “social change through music.” However, it is often hard to show data that supports this. El Sistema-inspired programs tend to more easily keep track of information pertaining to musical growth. They accomplish this through playing tests, juries, and concerts.
Summer Camps for Young Sistema Musicians
Kerrigan Dougherty, Artistic and Program Operations Coordinator, OrchKids, Baltimore
In the vast network of Sistema-inspired programs across the U.S., there is nearly as vast an array of summer programs. Each summer camp has distinguishing features, but all are united around a common purpose: preventing “summer learning loss.” Every executive director and program director surveyed for this article told me that summer programs are important bridges of learning between one year and the next.
