<p>Announced today - Bard, Longy & the LA Philarmonic are joining together to start a program called Take A Stand - which will train (and accredit) teachers based on the El Sistema method, give them practical experience in inner city and rural schools teaching classical music to underserved populations, offer individual study with LA Phil musicians, and start a national conversation through conferences and workshops.</p>
<p>Or at least that's my reading of all the news articles today! First I heard of this. This press release on the Bard site has links to articles in the NY Times, LA Times etc.</p>
<p>Sounds like this could become a Teach for America for musicians? Bard</a> College Press Releases - Full Story</p>
<p>SpiritManager: great link. I’ll pass it on to my son. Sounds like a great program.</p>
<p>Sounds like a win-win idea!</p>
<p>I am wondering if the merger of Bard and Longy happened first, then when NEC decided not to lead the El Sistema movement here in the U.S., this new organization was formed and El Sistema migrated over to Cambridge. Definitely a win win situation and one that we all can pass along to those who might be interested. A great thing for Bard. the article mentions Bard’s charter school in California as being involved, too.</p>
<p>I have been interested in Community MusicWorks in Providence RI, which started on a shoestring in a storefront and now has a 1/2 million dollar budget, and recently won a genius grant. I work with outreach at a regional music festival, and am curious how/whether El Sistema ends up interacting with pre-existing outreach programs.</p>
<p>Will a national effort work well in the U.S. or a more localized version, tailored to community needs? And will conservatories have funding at some point so that students from such outreach programs can eventually attend? This question always occurs to me, but there may already be a solution out there.</p>
<p>Anyway, very exciting for all 3 institutions!</p>