The World Ensemble

Dear Subscriber,  

Here is your mid-month World Ensemble Resource Basket. This month, you will learn about the Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra (SEYO) 2020, to be held in Madrid, a new website that connects teaching artists worldwide, the El Sistema Sweden Academy in early 2020, a new program visibility idea from Bosnia, a handy online resource guide of best creative teaching practices, seed grants for social change agents through The Pollination Project, and a Creative Youth Development toolkit and webinars. Please feel to share these resources with friends and colleagues; each item lives on the  WE Website .

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Best wishes from The WE Team,

Tricia Tunstall, Executive Editor
Christine D'Alexander, Managing Editor
Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra 2020 Announces Location and Requests Information
The Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra (SEYO) 2020 Artistic & Organizing Committee, in partnership with Fundación Acción Social por la Música in Madrid, announces that the 6th SEYO Summer Camp will take place in Madrid, probably July 4-12. Planning is at an early stage, but they need to know which programs have interest in attending. Please follow this link and complete the questionnaire before November 25, 2019. The questionnaire takes 15 minutes to complete and does not require firm commitments at this time. Those unfamiliar with SEYO can get a sense of its history of powerful impact and why it is worth attending .

SEYO leaders write: “As in past years, we recommend involving young musicians who, besides being fit for the repertoire, either particularly deserve to experience an SEYO camp due to specially helpful behavior (such as, for example, peer-to-peer teaching throughout the year) or who could benefit particularly from attending an SEYO camp. Also, we recommend involving young musicians who can be expected to bring back the enthusiasm, motivation, dedication, and know-how to their national programs and inspire their peers. This year, for the first time, SEYO will involve a ‘Beginners’ group.” 
Join the International Teaching Artist Collaborative
This week, the International Teaching Artist Collaborative (ITAC)—the first global network of artists who work in community and school settings—launched its new website and invites artists and those who work with them to join. The free-to-join ITAC Collaborative is the by-popular-demand outgrowth of the biennial International Teaching Artist Conferences, the next of which, ITAC5 , will happen in Seoul, South Korea, in September 2020. The Collaborative will work all year to publish news, projects, and opportunities and to build international connections among the global field. The website offers opportunities to join, stories from the global field, news about ITAC5, and the first-ever way to connect with the field of musicians for social change . It is simple to join on the website. If you have stories or information about your work that you would like to share, contact Manager Madeleine McGirk at info@itac-collaborative.com
New Way to Make Your Program Visible
Most El Sistema-inspired programs publish short profiles of students in newsletters and other communications—it’s a great way to personalize programs for the community, families and friends and funders. Focusing on the young people and their achievements makes the value of support more real and heartfelt.

House of Good Tones in Srebrenica, Bosnia, is trying something different. Instead of short blurbs about students, they are creating monthly biographical articles about students. Each article is published on their website and collectively published at the end of the school year. As Artistic Director Ismar Poric describes, “Srebrenica is a very difficult place to grow up, and through the stories we want to present how music has helped our students and their families, how it has changed their lives." See what their extended profile looks like; maybe it's something for your local program to try. Meet Violeta.
El Sistema Sweden Academy—Time to Sign Up
The El Sistema Sweden Academy kicks off El Sistema Sweden’s tenth anniversary year celebrations. The Academy focuses on strong El Sistema-inspired teaching practices and runs January 31–February 2 in Stockholm. It features a distinguished faculty of 15, including Gerald Wirth (President/Artistic Director of the Vienna Boys Choir), Sascha Goetzel (Artistic Director/Principal Conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra), Franka Verhagen   (the founder of the academic and professional training program for teachers and conductors at El Sistema Venezuela), Eric Booth (teaching artist trainer from the U.S.) and host Ron Davis Alvarez (El Sistema Sweden/Dream Orchestra). All essential information is here.

Here is a video from last year’s Academy. A reminder: Side by Side by El Sistema Sweden (June 13–17, 2020, in Gothenburg) applications are now open for this gigantic summer camp with over 2,500 students who can join in one of 18 possible tracks (eight orchestras, six choruses, and more options).

Best Creativity Programs in Music Education in the U.K. Profiled
Dr. Lorrie Heagy, founder of the El Sistema-inspired program Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) , in the U.S., was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching to pursue her research in the United Kingdom from January to June 2019. She has created a website to share her knowledge of programs she observed and studied and to serve as an online guide to best practices from music education programs in the U.K. The website includes media-rich resources that help students develop music skills, creativity, student agency and identity through music-making. The Creativity section shares tools from Musical Futures' Songwriting workshop, Classroom Workshopping from Guildhall School of Music and Drama , Figurenotes and Inclusive Music Technologies from Drake Music Scotland , improvisation techniques from the University of Strathclyde and resources on how Scotland is integrating creativity skills into their school curriculum. Return to the website soon to see the next section dedicated to Student Agency.
Funding for Agents of Social Change
The Pollination Project seeks to “unleash the goodness” in every person. Through a daily practice of generosity and giving, they make seed grants 365 days a year to social change agents anywhere in the world who seek to spread compassion in their communities and the world for the benefit of all. Maybe this is you?

New Creative Youth Development Resources
One of the umbrella terms for teaching artist work in the U.S. is "creative youth development"—the mix of youth development work and creative engagement. Teaching artists are leaders in this field. A new resource for the field from the U.S. Creative Youth Development National Partnership has just been released and may be useful to programs and practitioners more widely. This is the most comprehensive gathering of information about this emerging field. 

The Creative Youth Development Toolkit contains reports on special aspects of the field: Advocacy and Policy; Funding; Sustainability and Partnerships; Preparing Artists and Educators; Program Evaluation; Trends in CYD Programs; Working in Social Justice; and Working with Youth. You can also view three webinars on topics where leaders in the field talk about their work. 

Thank you for reading! 

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