Local outreach opportunities are abundant in every community. Nursing homes, hospitals, schools and libraries are often eager to host performances and can provide additional opportunities to reach out. Contact the staff at your local institutions to ask how you can be of service.
BLUME Haiti
BLUME Haiti works with Haitian and International partners to develop leadership skills awaken individual potential, and create opportunities for social and civic collaboration and economic development through music education and performance.
How to help:
- Join the BLUME Mailing list: http://www.blumehaiti.org/join-our-mailing-list.html
- Donate! BLUME Haiti’s success depends on financial support
- Host a benefit event in your hometown.
Clarinets for Conservation
Clarinets for Conservation promotes awareness of conserving Mpingo–commonly referred to as African Blackwood or Grenadilla–by actively engaging students and the community with the power of music.
Teaching secondary students in Tanzania to play the clarinet and starting 2015, string instruments, empowers them by improving problem-solving skills, facilitating self-sufficiency, and by providing a healthy creative outlet.
Students and C4C teachers take part in innovative interdisciplinary performances/tree plantings throughout Tanzania to help connect the clarinet and the tree it is made of, Mpingo, with the community–therefore fostering a sincere desire for a sustainable future.
http://www.clarinetsforconservation.org/
How to help:
Collect used (or new!) strings for the string program in Moshi, Tanzania. Please mark the strings with the instrument type and string name, and send to:
Hillary Herndon, Professor of Viola
University of Tennessee School of Music
117 Natalie L. Haslam Music Center
1741 Volunteer Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37996-2600
Host a fundraising concert in your area. E-mail clarinetsforconservation@gmail.com for more information.
To volunteer or donate funds to help support C4C, please visit http://www.clarinetsforconservation.org/
Cultures in Harmony
Cultures in Harmony (CiH) brings people together through music. A not-for-profit corporation, CiH strives:
- to advance and promote international and cultural understanding through music and interaction;
- to organize and sponsor trips to foreign countries for American classical musicians;
- to expose the American public to musicians from foreign countries and different cultures;
- to offer and provide forums for musical collaboration, performance and appreciation;
- to encourage and facilitate collaborations with local musicians, collaborations with humanitarian organizations and interaction with local culture through music, staying with host families and learning the language; and
- to conduct any and all lawful activities that may be useful in accomplishing the foregoing purposes.
How to help:
Cultures in Harmony has sent violists on cultural diplomacy projects in Mexico, Tunisia, Egypt, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Violists (and any other American musicians over age 21) interested in participating in a Cultures in Harmony project should contact culturesinharmony@gmail.com
Music for Food
We believe both music and food are essential to human life and growth. Music has the power to call forth the best in human beings and can inspire awareness and action when artists and audiences work together.
Music for Food is a musician-led initiative for local hunger relief that sets forth a model applicable in every community. Concerts raise resources and awareness in the fight against hunger, empowering musicians of all ages who wish to use their artistry to further social justice.
http://www.musicforfoodboston.org/
How to help:
Every musician has the ability to make a difference and become a Music for Food artist!
Designate one of your concerts as a Music for Food event.
Organize a Music for Food concert in your community.
Have a website? Show your support by putting a link to Music for Food’s website on yours: http://www.musicforfoodboston.org.
Help MFF spread the word!
Share your Music for Food Experience: We want to hear from you! Tell us about a Music for Food experience you had and it might end up in one of our monthly blog posts on our website or social media pages.
Like us on Facebook: All you have to do is click a button and you’ll instantly become a part of our growing Facebook community.
Join our mailing list: Don’t miss concert announcements or exciting news! Stay connected to MFF by joining our mailing list.
Share your mailing list! Share Music for Food concert announcements by joining your organization’s mailing list with ours.
Want to learn more? Visit: http://www.musicforfoodboston.org/how-artists/
Street Symphony
Street Symphony is a registered 501(c)(3) non profit organization dedicated to creating live, free, on-site musical experiences of the highest artistic quality for people experiencing incarceration and homelessness in Los Angeles County. Street Symphony ensembles perform at LA County Jails and homeless shelters in downtown Los Angeles, as well as public events for the community-at-large, aimed to raise awareness for issues of mental health, incarceration, and homelessness.
How to help:
Make a tax-deductable donation at streetsymphony.org.
“Like” the Street Symphony Facebook page and help spread the word about the organization’s efforts.
Follow Street Symphony on Twitter
Host a fundraising concert, or get involved by contacting zach@streetsymphony.org
YOA Global Leaders Program
Across the world, youth orchestras are forming based on a rapidly expanding belief in the value of music education as a tool for transforming communities. Through its unparalleled international network, YOA has played a supporting role in the emergence of grassroots youth orchestra projects from Canada to Chile.
YOA understands first-hand the real need that exists for young leaders capable of guiding new initiatives. Despite this need, the diverse skills and experiences required to build and sustain relevant social music programs are not taught in conservatory practice rooms or in university lecture halls.
The Global Leaders Program is an annual yearlong leadership-training course that supports the transformation of exceptional musicians into leading social entrepreneurs. The program combines unique on-site leadership development in diverse international settings with remote classroom training guided by a pioneering faculty. Leaders are taught to act simultaneously as cultural entrepreneurs, mentors, teaching artists, advocates, performers, administrators, and fundraisers.
The Global Leaders Program works to secure the future of the global youth orchestra movement by preparing young musical leaders to build and guide the social music initiatives of tomorrow. These Leaders will ensure that music initiatives continue to serve and enrich communities for generations to come.
http://yoa.org/LEADERS/GlobalLeadersProgram.aspx
How to participate:
To apply for the leadership program, visit http://yoa.org/LEADERS/GlobalLeadersProgram/Apply.aspx
If you would like the AVS to consider adding a humanitarian project link to this page, please send information to membership@americanviolasociety.org.