Learn about the latest happenings during the third year of Rachel's RI Fiddle Project, including new students events, funding received, and local performing activities, by visiting the Project's blog.

More photos by Jori in CMW's Flickr account.

In September, Sebastian was invited to speak at BIF-7, otherwise known as the seventh annual summit presented by Providence's Business Innovation Factory.

Heather and Alana joined Sebastian on stage, contributing a Bartok Duo.

Read the BIF-7 electronic program book here and check out one attendee's online post here.

In recent weeks, there has been a very exciting development in the growing El Sistema-inspired movement in the United States. In addition to the three-year-old Abreu Fellows Program at NEC and the El Sistema USA organization, there is now a partnership between the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bard College, and the Longy School of Music that will focus on growing the field of teaching artists who are specifically qualified to work with youth in this country's growing number of nucleos.

Read Dan Wakin's piece in The New York Times here.

Joining CMW's staff this month to manage our institutional relationships (research, grant writing, reporting, etc.) is Bryony Romer, a consultant and visual artist.

Bryony has many years of experience in fundraising, organizational development, strategic planning, and project management. Prior to founding Bryony Romer Consulting, she was a managing director at David Bury & Associates, where she advised leading arts and educational organizations on implementing effective development programs, building organizational capacity, realizing institutional funding opportunities, and developing strategic plans. Her clients have included Meet The Composer, Creative Capital, Chamber Music America, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy, and the Center of Creative Arts.

We're thrilled to have found Bryony, and I'm personally looking forward to knowing that CMW's most ambitious grant proposals and key funding relationships will be managed with the care and sophistication that they deserve. With Bryony on board, they will be in goods hands!

-Heath Marlow, Managing Director

A few more photos by Jori in CMW's Flickr account.

CMW recently hosted a visit by the newest class of the Abreu Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory. There will be more interaction between the two fellowship programs (CMW & Abreu) this year, and CMW musicians have already traveled up to Boston to participate in a professional development workshop for educators interested in El Sistema.

As Sebastian noted, since founding CMW in 1997, it is exciting to have so many new colleagues joining us in recent years to explore the possibilities of transforming lives through community-based music education. To paraphrase Erik Holmgren, Education Director for the Abreu Program, our collective challenge is to "unlearn hundreds of years of classical music culture" and become less rigid, embody the joy that is (at least in other cultures) such a natural part of a child's experience of learning and performing music.

Some of the new Abreu Fellows are blogging about their experience. Follow them here, here, and here.

-Heath Marlow, Managing Director

The CMW Players and Haven String Quartet preparing for their November 5 & 6 performances in New Haven and Providence respectively. Note Music Haven's spacious streetfront rehearsal space. Photos by Netta Hadari.

The accomplishments of Venezuela’s El Sistema are greater and more far-­‐ranging than anything we in the United States can imagine. It is not an over-­-statement to assert that El Sistema represents the most significant innovation in the arts and arts learning in our lifetimes. Fortunately, we in the United States and around the world are beginning to learn about it and to learn from it.

The Sistema-­‐inspired work in Colombia called Batuta, the second largest such national program in the world, is also doing work beyond our U.S. imagining. And we have yet to begin learning from it. We hope that this essay will serve as a useful introduction to the proud history and the current accelerated growth phase of Sistema Batuta Colombia.

Click here to read the entire essay by Eric Booth and Tricia Tunstall

Chloe, Liz, and Heath each attempt to mediate a squabble between Ruthy and Raine, the excellent training leaders provided by the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island.