Editorial: We Have Work to Do In How We Describe Our Work
by Jeff M. Poulin, Founder & Managing Director, Creative Generation We are experiencing a new kind of revolution in our time. This revolution is not centered solely in politics, technology, or the increasing globalization of our planet—but rather, it features... Read More →
Rotating Student Leadership Roles at Tocando
by Claudia Saldaña, Ph.D., and Beverley Argus-Calvo, Ph.D., College of Education, The University of Texas at El Paso Widening participation is one of the goals of Tocando, an El-Sistema inspired program in the U.S/Mexico border city of El Paso, Texas.... Read More →
Editorial: When the Arrows are Words, Best to Just Let Them In
by Marshall Marcus, President and Founder, Sistema Europe It’s that moment that threatens to undo many of us. I had just finished giving a Sistema presentation to the Alliance for Childhood at the European Parliament. It had seemed to go... Read More →
Transition Time: A New Home for The WE
Editorial by Eric Booth and Tricia TunstallCo-founders, The World Ensemble It’s exhilarating to make something new. Anyone who’s ever started a “music for social change” program, or any kind of new program, or even any work of art or craft, knows that... Read More →
Celebrating African Diasporic Culture With Castle of our Skins
The African American poet, activist, and educator Nikki Giovanni begins her “Poem for Nina” with the following lines: we are all imprisoned in the castle of our skins and some of us have said so be it if i am... Read More →
Boston String Academy Joins Orquestra Geração
“Visiting Portugal with my BSA orchestra was a trip full of memories that will never stop coming back to me. It’s amazing how, despite the expected language barrier, there were no walls between us, like we didn’t need words to... Read More →
EDITORIAL: The Transformative Power of Big
I have been lucky enough to attend the last three gatherings of the global Sistema’s biggest events—Side by Side by El Sistema Sweden, Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra, and the YOLA National Festival. There is no getting around it—these are gigantically... Read More →
The YOLA National Festival and Symposium in Los Angeles
In July, the Los Angeles Philharmonic sponsored the YOLA National Festival and Symposium, a multi-dimensional gathering for the El Sistema movement in the United States. The Festival was an intensive orchestral training program for students ages 12-18 from across the... Read More →
The Ambassadors’ Exchange, July 2019
Young Africa Works: Focus on Kenyan Youth, by Linet Othieno (Kenya) Towards the end of May, Ghetto Classics had a performance at the UN Assembly. The theme was Innovation for Better Quality of Life in Cities and Communities. This month we also had the... Read More →
A Space of Our Own: The Atlanta Music Project’s New Headquarters
Nine years ago, 19 elementary schoolchildren gathered at the Gilbert House, an old house in southwest Atlanta, to begin their journey towards becoming musical artists. Over the course of the following decade, these children were joined by hundreds of others;... Read More →