As a we wrap up summer programming (and vacations!), we want to celebrate a wonderful Summer Music Camp final concert late last week! Thanks to all of the students in our Headstart and Academy programs for a great week of music-making.
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Two of our lead teaching artists, Rohan Joshi and Christina Cuellar, were joined by education director Mary Speight and executive director Patrick Slevin for 4 days of education and networking at the beautiful Ravinia Festival.
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Lucy Ann Collins Nazro, founding board member of Austin Soundwaves and board member emeritus, died peacefully on August 21st. She was 86 years old.
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The Long Center is putting on a community bash and open house in loving memory of Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, one half of the founding duo and namesake.
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We are looking for new students of all ages—10 to 55 and up!—for our 2023-24 year to join Mariachi Para Todos, our intergenerational mariachi ensemble program.
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Two of our brilliant Austin Soundwaves lead teaching artists, Matthew Gustafson and Jorge Villalba, were selected as part of the summer learning retreat for the Teaching Artist Training Institute held in Miami at the end of June. They spent the week working and learning with teaching artists from other El Sistema-inspired programs throughout the United States.
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Recent Austin Soundwaves and Draylen Mason Fellows alumna, Elif Painaik, performing at the Art All Summer camp held at Govalle Elementary. Elif played a little J.S. Bach and took questions about being a musician and soon-to-be university freshman at UT-Austin. Way to go, Elif!
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We're excited to announce that we have been selected as a partner with PlayUSA, an initiative of Carnegie Hall, supporting our programs year-round! PlayUSA is investing more than $500,000 to support 22 total programs like ours from across the United States for the 2023-24 season. Thank you, PlayUSA!
Read more about it here: www.carnegiehall.org/Education/Programs/PlayUSA#partners
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We are so excited for our dear colleague, Dr. Ciyadh Wells, for being named the new executive director of Castle of our Skins! Ciyadh will lead the Boston-based Black arts institution dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music into an exciting new era.
This is of course bittersweet for us at Austin Soundwaves since this marks the end of Ciyadh's role as our brilliant development manager, but we could not be happier nor prouder of this next step in her career. We’ve been so lucky to have Ciyadh as part of our team and Castle of Our Skins is luckier still. We’ll miss you, Ciyadh!
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We're so thrilled and proud that Luis Bellorín, one of our amazing teaching artists, was selected for a prestigious MPower Artist Grant through the Sphinx Organization! The MPower Artist Grant enables Austin Unconducted, a conductorless orchestra co-founded by Luis, to expand its 2023-24 season and produce its first community concerts, increasing the ensemble’s ability to reach diverse audiences and its sustainability.
Congrats again, Luis!
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What's better than more than 300 beginning band and orchestra students at the Aisd Performing Arts Center? We had a chance to showcase the 6th-grade beginners from 11 AISD elementary schools on Monday in our 1st annual 6th-grade AISD Band and Orchestra Extravaganza! This all-day event featured workshops, rehearsals, and a performance for family and friends.
Thanks so much to the AISD Fine Arts department, the administration and teachers of Allison, Govalle, Houston, Langford, Lee, Ortega, Perez, Sanchez, Widén, and Zavala elementary schools, and the amazing 6th-grade music students who have worked so hard these past few months!
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Last week, Austin Soundwaves provided an after-school workshop for Eastside Early College High School band students preparing for their UIL performance. Our staff was joined by guest clinician Isaac Medina from Pflugerville ISD. The team provided instrument-specific sectionals and full band rehearsal to help with the final push to the performance. This workshop serves as an extension of our existing and ongoing partnership to support the band and orchestra at Eastside since our partnership began in 2020!
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