Road to Peace

"I believe that every human being has to take a concern about humanity, about the world"
Experience the nature and wisdom of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, and discover how he inspires millions of people of all nationalities and creeds to live more meaningful lives in harmony with each other, and with the planet. Road to Peace captures the simple, human and humorous side of the Dalai Lama and reveals his personal and powerful legacy for this and future generations.

Adopt the Arts

Adopt the Arts is a non-profit funding arts programs in public elementary schools. Co-founded by former Guns n' Roses drummer, Matt Sorum. Supported by Jane Lynch and others. It is the mission of Adopt the Arts Foundation to bring together well-known artists, public figures, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and the general public to save the arts in America's public schools. They believe that it is morally and ethically incumbent upon us to foster the creativity, dreams, hopes, and imaginations of our children. Their "Adopt a School" program is a very smart way to quickly give schools flexible arts and music programs.

Is World Peace Possible?

"The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and politics. We have reached the point of regarding each other only as members of a people either allied with us or against us and our approach: prejudice, sympathy, or antipathy are all conditioned by that. Now we must rediscover the fact that we - all together - are human beings, and that we must strive to give to each other what moral capacity we have." - Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Thirty-one-year-old West Point graduate, author, and former army captain Paul Chappell discusses if world peace is possible and whether human beings are naturally violent or peaceful.
Chappell now works at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and travels the country talking about the necessity of ending war and “waging peace.” He is involved with the American Unity Project, which features a free online series of documentaries about waging peace. He also trains peace activists — a pursuit he believes should be undertaken with at least as much forethought and strategy as training soldiers for war (read article here)

So who will you make Peace with this year?

Do you know Peace Day is 21 September, every year? In this video clip, the founder of Peace One Day, Jeremy Gilley, talks about his journey creating a day of ceasefire and non-violence on a fixed calendar date, Peace Day, 21 September.
-- read about POD 2014 celebration

Peace Through Kindness

World peace doesn’t have to be achieved through drastic measures, or by some huge process. Sometimes a kind gesture, or even just a smile can help to brighten someone’s day. Rather than return the favor, this video asks others to “pass it on”. If we can start a chain reaction of good deeds, eventually it can spread. This is more than just a school thing. This is a human thing. If one simple action is all it takes, then let’s take that step to get there. We fight to stop wars, and we fight to end injustices around the world. But maybe, if we can start with just the people around us, and if we can get that to expand, maybe then we won’t need to work so hard to achieve peace. Because we will already be there.


Peace Through Kindness. Pass It On. from Myrtle Janine on Vimeo.

The Arts as a Path to Opportunity

"Arts are a path to opportunity. Businesses benefit from the creativity, perseverance and problem-solving skills that Americans develop through the arts. The arts drive private-sector investment and job creation. Every dollar of N.E.A. (National Endowment for the Arts) funding generates $9 of non-federal money to the arts, and the nonprofit arts industry generates 4.1 million jobs"
ROBERT L. LYNCH
ROBERT REDFORD
Washington, Feb. 7, 2014
-- read opinion on NY Times

Imagine ☮ Peace

International Day of Peace (21 September) - Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples... Nice video.
-- video uploaded by Vusal Rahimli

More on El Sistema

In 1975, José Antonio Abreu, conductor, composer and economist, developed the idea of improving social conditions in his country through classical music, by giving children an alternative to life on the streets. In Caracas, he founded the first Venezuelan children's orchestra with twelve children from the barrios, the illegal suburban slums. Since then, he has built a network of orchestras and music centres - El Sistema - throughout the country; each of these teaches in the same unique way. Maestro Abreu has been able to build upon and expand his vision continuously over the course of more than three decades. The children's orchestras turned into youth orchestras and the music centres into academies where highly talented musicians study. During recent years, El Sistema has produced a whole series of internationally successful conductors, the most well-known of which is surely Gustavo Dudamel. At the present time, there are 286 music centres in Venezuela, the so-called nucléos, usually located at the edge of a barrio. Today, the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar unites almost 400,000 members throughout the entire country in a system of preschool orchestras, children's orchestras, and youth orchestras, all the way to adult symphony orchestras and choruses. 75 % of the children and teenagers participating in the programme live below the poverty line. As part of the 2013 Salzburg Festival, this visionary and exemplary project was presented for the first time in a larger context and in its full diversity outside of Venezuela. To achieve this goal, the Salzburg Festival invited not only the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra - the orchestral training programme's flagship, which has appeared previously in Salzburg - but also five of El Sistema's other ensembles.
-- Watch José Antonio Abreu's TED talk
-- Watch "El Sistema: Changing Lives Through Music"

A System to Fight Poverty with Music

Inspired by "El Sistema" of Venezuela Adam Johnston and iCAN created great music and arts programs for the children in Santa Barbara, California. The mission of the Incredible Children's Art Network (iCAN) is to bring high quality arts programs to children in Santa Barbara County, particularly those least likely to receive them. Through sustained creative learning opportunities that emphasize both artistic excellence and access, iCAN seeks to affect positive social change in the communities it serves. The iCAN Visual Arts Program is committed to inspiring and sustaining quality arts instruction as a fundamental part of every child’s education regardless of their experience, income or location. Now entering its third year, the iCAN Music Program serves over 120 1st - 6th Grade students at Franklin Elementary School, located in Santa Barbara’s East Side. The program operates every weekday during the school year for three hours, directly after school. Students receive intensive musical instruction, as well as time and support for homework completion.
-- read "A System to Fight Poverty with Music, at the Santa Barbara Foundation"



Here is a visit to the Visual Art program at Franklin School, prepared for Sir Ken Robinson's visit, where Teaching Artist Shannon McCain Jaffe is in the middle of a project of making mobiles from found objects.

Why Kids Love Art

"If I did not have art I would be very sad"

Listen to what students say about why art is important to them. From pizza cats to Chinese dragons, to dogs made from the number nine anything is possible in an Art in Action lesson.
Art in Action is a nonprofit organization dedicated since 1982 to bringing visual arts education to the classroom. Art in Action fosters the educational development and creativity of children across America through innovative visual arts programs and communities. They believe that a quality art education is critical for every student's preparation for success in the 21st century, and they actively assist schools in implementing a comprehensive, standards-based visual art program.

Leading the Cause for Music Education

The Opus Project is a community based music program for at-risk youth in San Diego County. It was designed as a free after-school instrumental music program to demonstrate the positive affects that learning and performing music has on students, engage parents and teachers, build community support for music education, and advocate for its return to schools. The program began with 65 third-graders at two schools in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which had cut its music program many years earlier. SDYS’ strategy worked! After less than three years of the program, the District was convinced of music’s tremendous value and committed to returning its in-school music education program for all of its students. Today, more than 3,000 students are learning music as part of their regular curriculum. The District’s goal is to return music to all students by 2025.
"According to Dalouge Smith, president and CEO of the San Diego Youth Symphony, not only have principals at Community Opus participating schools reported a decline in classroom disruptions and improved motivation, behavior, and attendance among students studying instruments, but these students also performed significantly better on fourth grade math and reading proficiency tests than students not receiving music instruction".
-- read "Using Music to Close the Academic Gap" by Lori Miller Kase

Music for Peace

"When music speaks, everybody understands". The tagline for the new EMMA (or Euro Mediterranean Music Academy) for Peace is a simple but powerful mantra. Music, it suggests, can succeed where language simply can’t. It can excite, thrill, console and comfort without the need for words, and it has the ultimate ability to unite disparate and often opposing communities. EMMA’s aim, according to its founder, a young Italian called Paolo Petrocelli, is to have a ‘positive impact’ on young people throughout the religiously and politically diverse Middle East and Mediterranean regions through, according to its website, "a network of music institutions, universities and philanthropic foundations brought together in the shared interest of music and the promotion of peace". EMMA for Peace was launched at the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.
-- read article on Classical-music.com (The official website of BBC Music Magazine)




EMMA for Peace at the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates from EMMA for Peace on Vimeo.

The Forbidden Education (La Educación Prohibida)

The Forbidden Education (Spanish: La Educación Prohibida) is an independent documentary released in 2012. This documentary film questions the logic of modern schooling—and our very understanding of education—by highlighting different and unconventional educational experiments that suggest the need of a new educational paradigm. It is a learning project that was created by a group of young people who interviewed more than 90 alternative education teachers in 8 countries. The film was released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license and became the first released movie in Spanish to be funded under a crowdfunding methodology.
The Forbidden Education aims to inspire thoughtful societal debate about the fundamental structure of school, encouraging the development of a comprehensive education centered on love, respect, freedom and learning.

Hope dies last

In 1999 a group of children, devastated by the war between Kosovo and Serbia, found their hope in music. Learning, playing, singing and performing together to create something positive in their lives. Ten years later they are taking their gift of music to children who are victims of war in Uganda, spreading hope to a new generation and helping them build their tomorrow. One generation, one country, helping the next.
The Shropshire Music Foundation provides free musical instruments and instruction to former child soldiers and refugees in some of the world’s most wartorn places: Kosovo, Uganda, and Northern Ireland. Since 1999, they have taught more than 10,000 young people that through music they can bring healing, hope, and peace to their communities.
Hope dies the last is a A documentary Film by Paul Kakert in production for DocumentaryTV.com



Vegan and Vesa, two teenagers who live in Gjakova Kosovo and survived a war with Serbia as young children, perform in 2008. Both are volunteers with the Shropshire Music Foundation that teaches hope for the future through music. This performance is from the documentary Hope Dies the Last, from Director Paul Kakert and DocumentaryTV.com, produced by Storytellers International and EDPvideo.com.

Preserving Art & Music Education in Public Schools

"Students who can use art and music to think big, those are the global changers to me"- Jahi
51Oakland is a non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to inspire Student learning, creativity, hard work, and self-esteem by strengthening the role of Music and Arts Education in Oakland Public Schools. Partnering with Yoshi’s Jazz Club, 51Oakland provides Oakland Public School students with access to programs, resources, supplies, instruction, mentoring and training in Music and the Arts. Their hope is that 51Oakland’s commitment to supporting educational Music and Arts programs will foster a community that nurtures growth, creativity, and self-expression for youth, and will help instill core values in program participants – strong work ethic, discipline, teamwork, and self-actualization. Click on image below to watch on VIMEO

Syrian Children Fight War with Play

Play it, Like it, Share it. If this video reaches 250,000 VIEWS by September 3rd Guerilla Aid will donate a futbol field so these kids have a safe place to play!
-- by GoBokaPlay - video produced in collaboration with Make Life Better Foundation and War Child, an organization contributing to a peaceful future for children and young people affected by armed conflict.

Why the Arts Matter

The arts are important. They strengthen social bonds and communities, allow both groups and individuals a means to express themselves, and they establish a sense of community identity, which can be expressed at home and abroad. Simply stated, the arts matter. The video below was created in partnership between the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative.



And let's also see what younger people say...

Teaching one child at a time

"Our dream is very simple: to send each of these kids, get them prepared to be educated but also to live peacefully, contented in this conflict-ridden chaotic globalized world."
Educating the poor is more than just a numbers game, says Shukla Bose. She tells the story of her groundbreaking Parikrma Humanity Foundation, which brings hope to India's slums by looking past the daunting statistics and focusing on treating each child as an individual.
Shukla is the founder and head of this Foundation, a nonprofit that runs four extraordinary schools for poor children. The word "Parikrma" implies a full revolution, a complete path around -- and Parikrma Humanity Foundation offers literally that to kids in poor urban areas around Bangalore. Parikrma's four Schools of Hope teach the full, standard Indian curriculum to children who might not otherwise see the inside of a classroom, with impressive results. Equally important, the schools build an "end-to-end" environment that supports learning -- offering lunch every day, health-care and family support. They also promote a unique fund-raising initiative called Heart For Art that showcases their children's art to the world. They have already held 3 art shows in the US - two in Manhattan, NY and one in San Francisco. Inspiring people, inspiring results.
"When I started Parikrma I began with a great deal of arrogance of transforming the world. But today I have been transformed. I have been changed with my children. I've learned so much from them: love, compassion, imagination and such creativity."

Thank you

"You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, everywhere, even the stars."
- Robin Williams

Thank you for all the good times.

-- Artists Around The World Pay Tribute To Robin Williams with Wonderful Artworks

Music gives hope

We might have posted this earlier this year but it is worth watching it again. How music programs can be crucial in saving the lives of children in difficult situations giving them confidence, hope and opportunities.
-- visit Harmony Project website



Harmony Project: Peer Mentor Program

I love music, I just feel my heart beat

"I love music, I just feel my heart beat." 
"Music is beautiful, it's been here with me -- been here through all my troubles. It is like my homey, my friend. We can just talk. He'll talk and I'll listen." 
"Music is like my meditation, music has just opened my eyes." 
-- Scotty Way

Music has the power to soothe the soul, raise the spirit and, in the case of a Los Angeles teenager, lift a life out of poverty. Harmony Project is Los Angeles’ largest nonprofit organization solely dedicated to music education for youth in low-income communities.
-- Read article on CBS News

How music transforms lives

Nordoff Robbins is a national music charity dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable children and adults across the UK. Their trained network of music therapists work with people of all ages and with a range of conditions. They deliver thousands of music therapy sessions per year in care homes, day centres, hospitals, schools and our own centres and are also developing a range of other music and health projects aimed at bringing music to more and more people in local communities.



- Suffering from advanced dementia, Kath couldn't speak and was isolated from the world.
Watch how music therapy helped Kath find a connection - watch video on VIMEO
- Jack has severe learning difficulties and is autistic. Music therapy helps him to communicate and express himself. Watch how Jack engages through music - watch video on VIMEO

The importance of Arts Education

Michael Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. He is the founder of The Great American Songbook Initiative, a non-profit organization with a mission to inspire and educate by celebrating the Great American Songbook. In this video he discusses the importance of Arts Education in schools.

Project Music International

Project Music International is a program at Oakland International High School produced by Integrated Music which fosters unity and learning through music. Their mission is to engage people and institutions to work cooperatively across cultures through music to support and create happy, healthy, and sustained musical communities now and into the future.

International Zouk Flashmob 2013

The International Zouk Flashmob has grown to become the LARGEST WORLDWIDE FLASHMOB IN HISTORY! In this second edition, there were 127 cities, a total of 43 countries from all over the world dancing as one! It was carried out on the 21st September 2013 in order to commemorate the International Day of Peace.
- tweeted by Jeremy Gilley, Peace One Day

Peace Begins with Me

In June of 2013, a group of 15 individuals, known as Team Next Generation Yoga, went to Kenya to be Ambassadors for Africa Yoga Project. Here is some of their journey...
-- Africa Yoga Project

Peace on Earth

"Everybody can be somebody / Everybody is free to make a difference in this world"
"Peace on Earth, that's what we want / Peace on Earth,that's what we all say"

Guitarist and singer Raul Midon blends flamenco, jazz and R&B to create a category-defying sound. His life story is as inspiring as his musical vision. He is into beating the odds, shattering stereotypes, and making category-defying music. "I was told as a child, 'You're blind; you can't do this'. At 40, however, Midon has clearly made it. After singing backup vocals for stars like Shakira, Julio Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, Midon released his major-label solo debut, State of Mind, with help from guest artist Jason Mraz (TED)

Beautiful little people

Lamiya was in sixth grade and one of the first Modern Band students at Philippa Schuyler Middle School after Jen Theilacker (her teacher) attended Little Kids Rock’s teacher training and received all of the musical instruments and resources she needed to start a program at her school. Lamiya, who is headed to high school next year, embraced this new learning environment wholeheartedly, as it allowed her to get in touch with her creative side and grow as a person, not just a musician. Her original song, Broken Record (about battling depression and insomnia) gives a glimpse into Lamiya’s heart, which she pours out for her audience: "A broken record basically repeats a certain part of a song over and over again. In a way, a person who has depression feels like their life is a broken record, because the sadness never leaves, and bad things keep happening." "I think that music will forever be part of my life," she says. "It won’t be my main focus, because my biggest goal in life is to be a doctor. However, I’d love to continue helping people with my songs in the future."
"I feel like I have learned as much, if not more from Lamiya, than I have taught her over the past few years", says her teacher -- read full article here

Inspiring speech

"One positive thought creates millions of positive vibrations"

Carlos Santana returned to his old high school and helped some of the first Little Kids Rock students deliver instruments to the current students at the school who benefit from this free music program. The students then gave a special performance with Santana.
Little Kids Rock is a nonprofit organization that transforms children's lives by restoring and revitalizing music education in public schools nationwide. It was founded in San Francisco in 2002 by David Wish, an elementary school teacher who had grown frustrated with the lack of music education funding at his school.
-- watch on abc 7 News

Great programs

MILE stands for Music Integrated Learning Environment (MILE) Project. The program is presented by the Oakland Unified School District’s Visual and Performing Arts Department, in collaboration with Music in Schools Today and the Music in Education National Consortium. Funded by a 4-year, $1 million Arts-in-Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant from the United States Department of Education, the MILE Project is investigating the correlations between music learning and student academic achievement in elementary schools in OUSD. The MILE Project believes that when music is at the core of the classroom culture and the school community, 1) students and teachers teach and learn in dynamic ways that enhance student achievement across academic disciplines, and 2) schools become vibrant and healthy learning communities.

Martin Luther Songwriting Competition
Martin Luther visits Lafayette Elementary to kick off the Music Inspires songwriting contest.
Click on image to watch video.

Jazzocracy: To what extent does the study of jazz help students understand the concept of freedom of expression and responsibility in personal and public domains?
Click on image to watch video (under video documentation tab)

August 6

"Enola Gay / It shouldn't ever have to end this way / Ah-ha Enola Gay / It shouldn't fade in our dreams away"
"Enola Gay" is an anti-war song by the British synthpop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). It was the only single from the band's 1980 album, Organisation. Written by Andy McCluskey, it addresses the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, and directly mentions three components of the attack: the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, which dropped the nuclear weapon Little Boy on Hiroshima at "8:15".

Music is sanity

This is a beautiful story - please watch this talk.
"Music is medicine. Music changes us. And for Nathaniel, music is sanity. Because music allows him to take his thoughts and delusions and shape them through his imagination and his creativity, into reality. And that is an escape from his tormented state. And I understood that this was the very essence of art. This was the very reason why we made music, that we take something that exists within all of us at our very fundamental core, our emotions, and through our artistic lens, through our creativity, we're able to shape those emotions into reality. And the reality of that expression reaches all of us and moves us, inspires and unites us." 
Violinist Robert Gupta joined the LA Philharmonic at the age of 19 — and maintains a passionate parallel interest in neurobiology and mental health issues. In this presentation he talks about a violin lesson he once gave to a brilliant, schizophrenic musician — and what he learned.

More about Mural Music & Arts Project

The Mural Music and Arts Project is a youth development organization inspiring positive youth outcomes through the arts. Their mission is Educate, Inspire, and Empower Youth through the Arts. The San Francisco Teen Mural Program (TMP) is branch of MMAP. TMP is a summer employment program with local teens hired to research, design, and install a large public art mural in their community. The 2013 summer's theme was Movements: Flow of Ideas, Resources, and People. The unveiling for TMP SF's mural was on August 15th, 2013 at the Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA, with the mural's final home being in San Francisco's City Hall.

This is way cool

The Mural Music and Arts Project (MMAP) educates, empowers, and inspires youth through participation in the arts by offering year-round, youth development programs in the Bay Area. MMAP began in 2001 as the East Palo Alto Mural Art Project, employing local teens to design and create a mural for every school in the district. Since then, MMAP’s teen artists have researched, planned, and installed a public arts legacy. These murals reflect themes of community, cooperation, equity, justice, environment, and local history. Since its founding, MMAP has served over 3,000 youth in arts-based, youth development programs who have created 124 murals, produced 68 original songs, and choreographed 16 dances. MMAP remains steadfast in its mission to impact youth and their communities by working collaboratively to offer myriad arts programs, including the Teen Mural Program, the Graffiti Arts Project, History through Hip Hop, Health Education through Art, Public Arts Consulting, and In-School Art Electives.
-- watch more inspiring videos here

Music as a therapy

"..its about seeing the joy and sparkle in others eyes." - T
Music therapy comforts, soothes those with varying degrees of dementia. As also beautifully portrayed in the recent documentary ALIVE INSIDE music is capable of reawakening our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity. Music talks to us and its healing power can triumph where prescription medication falls short. Please watch this video clip below and see the magic effects that music can have on elderly people affected by this disease.
-- go to Alzheimer's Bermuda

Music Inspires Language

MUSIC INSPIRES EDUCATION is a campaign from Music In Schools Today.
For several months in the spring of 2012, musician Martin Luther McCoy worked with students at Lafayette Elementary School in West Oakland on a songwriting project. But the students learned more than just how to write songs.


Music Inspires Language from musicinspires on Vimeo.

Music Inspires Confidence

MUSIC INSPIRES EDUCATION is a campaign from Music In Schools Today.
Musician and teacher Curt Yagi worked with 12-year-old Brittney in an after-school program to write and perform an original song. Here they talk about how music inspires them and improves education overall.


Music Inspires Confidence from musicinspires on Vimeo.

Music Inspires Collaboration

MUSIC INSPIRES EDUCATION is a campaign from Music In Schools Today.
When Alma Desnuda (Naked Soul) stopped in at Folsom Middle School for a surprise visit with the school's jazz band, the students were surprised (and pretty nervous) when Alma D invited them to perform together in front of the entire school the very next day. See what happens when the two bands come together for a spontaneous, one-day collaboration.


Music Inspires Collaboration from musicinspires on Vimeo.

Music in schools - Why Music

In the next 3 posts we will show some video clips that have been produced by an organization called Music in schools Today. MUST is a non-profit organization that supports and develops music education programs that increase student achievement. They believe that music education helps improve grades, standardized test scores, behavior, attendance and student health. More specifically they believe that music nurtures the human spirit, promotes personal development, and is central to learning and the creative process. Music and the arts are as essential to a well-rounded education as literacy, math and science. Music, both in and out of the classroom, promotes physical well-being and social understanding and helps build bridges within local and global communities.

Is school enough?

Thanks to digital media, the Internet and new advances in understanding how students learn, educators are beginning to appreciate the importance of breaking out of the classroom and into the wider world. There’s a growing understanding that learning should not just be preparation for life, but is actually “life itself.” 
Is School Enough? documents vivid examples of where new modes of learning and engagement are taking hold and flourishing. Featuring nationally recognized educators and researchers, Stephen Brown’s powerful stories show that when students have the opportunity to explore real interests and problems, they step up and perform at the highest level. This new approach reaches motivated students as well as kids that educators call “the bright and bored,” helping these learners tune in rather than drop out.
-- watch TRAILER

The Importance of Drama: Transferable Skills

Pearson and Shakespeare's Globe have been working together to produce a series of short films on the importance of drama. They have spoken to a number of eminent practitioners from the business and performing arts sectors about the skills that can be acquired and developed through studying drama and creative subjects. The first film provides information on how a qualification in drama can provide relevant transferable skills for use in working life. In the second film, they focus on how studying drama can improve key skills in analysis, communication and evaluation.

Complete Me

"The whole idea of education is to educate people to be whole people. If we are only focusing on four subjects, we are just stamping out cookie cutter kids that all think the same. That's not education. That's narrow-mindedness."
Students all across the nation are begging, complete me, needing a well rounded education. This documentary looks at the student's desperate need for the performing arts in public schools. Through the eyes of students and teachers we see the need for performing arts and the drastic repercussions of losing it. Nice job.
Kevin Terrell has been creating films in one way or another since an extremely young age. His passion for visual story telling is inspired by his father’s love for books and movies. He currently attends Full Sail University to attain a Bachelors Degree in Film.

Teaching musically

"We have to stop thinking of education as a gift that we give to our students. Education as much as creativity is something that needs to be shared. If there is no reciprocity, then it is not a fully meaningful experience"
Ryan Burwell shares the elements of music that have resonated most richly with him and his students, and will suggest ways of applying these elements to teaching practice. Focusing on the skills of improvisation and composition, he will try to convince you that curriculum design needs to be thought of like the pentatonic scale, and that you don't need to be a music teacher to teach musically.
Very interesting talk.
-- read Let’s hack the curriculum by Ryan
-- Ryan's blog

Kids and the Arts

Culture for Kids in the Arts is a registered charitable organization dedicated to providing high quality arts experiences to children and youth, regardless of their financial circumstances. Designed to promote arts in education, Culture for Kids in the Arts programming encourages students to expand their learning potential through their natural enjoyment of the performing and visual arts.
"Participation and access to the arts is a right, not a privilege"

Music is just pure magic

A documentary about a musical saw musician by Vanessa Martino, a film student of the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia.

 
“Saw Man” by Vanessa Martino '14 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

'Ave Maria' on musical saw.



Musical Saw performance by Sakita Hajime.

Dedicated to all aspiring artists

"And remember that whatever discipline you are in, whether you are a musician or a photographer, a fine artist or a cartoonist, a writer, a dancer, a designer, whatever you do you have one thing that's unique. You have the ability to make art. And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that's been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones. Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art." 
Neil Gaiman addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012. One of the best commencement speeches. A must watch for any artist and everyone who hopes to be creative and successful.
Neil is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films.
-- read speech here

The Importance of Music

Very nice talk by Leonard Slatkin on the importance on music in schools and life in general. Slatkin is an American conductor and composer. He is Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lyon, France.
-- Leonard's Testimony in Support of Music Education