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December 16, 2020
“Enough” is Not Enough
After a ten-year wait, the u.s. Department of education released data this past spring that paints an incomplete but dismaying picture of the status of arts education in our nation’s schools.
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October 16, 2016
Coda: In the Band
Diversity and inclusion are central to the missions of orchestras today, as the League’s 2016 Conference, “The Richness of Difference,” made clear. At the Conference, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, who represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, spoke with passion and eloquence about his own journey, his connection with music, and why the arts matter.
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February 3, 2020
The Messiah Project
Founded by MacArthur Fellow and violinist Vijay Gupta, Street Symphony annually performs Handel’s Messiah in collaboration with Los Angeles’ Skid Row community. This project is an example of an authentic partnership with some of the least advantaged members of society, with participation and musical joy at its core.
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January 17, 2018
Roads to Recovery
This fall, orchestras in several states were hit hard by natural disasters. Yet even as they suffered the same blows as their neighbors, orchestras and musicians stepped forward to encourage and help rebuild their communities. Beyond offering the solace only music can, orchestras need to have their own contingency plans in place to cope when disaster strikes.
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June 24, 2021
The Music of Community Change
Centered on the question “What is, and what should be, the role of creative placemaking in communities undergoing change?” a new report from Slover Linett about a major placemaking project in Denver holds significant learning for orchestras about how to enter into community work with humility and build toward outcomes that create belonging and social cohesion.
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April 13, 2016
Growth Spurt
Youth orchestras in the United States are not only alive and well, but are bringing a hands-on experience of classical music and collaborative art to an increasingly large and diverse segment of the youthful population, at multiple ages and levels of intensity. That’s the picture that emerges from Youth Orchestra Profile 2015, a new report prepared by the League of American Orchestras’ Knowledge Center summarizing results from its recent survey of League member youth orchestras.
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July 10, 2019
Music and Social Justice
A recent blossoming of orchestral works is opening conversations about today’s most pressing concerns. Orchestras and music institutions are creating an unprecedented number of programs whose social impact goes well beyond the music itself.
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April 11, 2024
Activating Artistry to Improve Youth Outcomes
Join us for a 2½-hour interactive session with accomplished teaching artists Eric Booth and Hassan Anderson sharing their expertise in successful creative youth development through the tools of quality teaching artistry.
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July 5, 2023
Conference 2023: Shared Services: How the Downtown Pittsburgh Cultural Organizations Benefit by Working Together to Lift All Boats
Orchestras large and small can benefit from cost savings, and one model is to partner with sister organizations in the same community. The Pittsburgh Cultural District’s unique program of Shared Services, an innovative operational collaboration, provides the seven major arts organizations in the district with scaled fees depending on budget to purchase healthcare together, to screen Tessitura data for marketing mailings across the district, and to create joint brochures and marketing campaigns.
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October 18, 2017
EdCE on the Rise
In August, the League of American Orchestras released Of and For the Community: Education and Community Engagement Work of Orchestras, which reveals marked growth in education and community engagement (EdCE) activity by orchestras between 2009 and 2014. Here are excerpts and highlights from the report.