The Blog Spot

Summer Programming

We are excited to share that we are bringing summer programming to our students at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy for the first time! Coming together in the summer provides more opportunities for students to grow as musicians and learn more skills on their instrument.

Programming will run from mid-June to mid-July, and involve ensemble playing, improvisation classes, as well as special guest visitors and performers! 

We can’t wait!

Spring Concert Review: A Beautiful Gathering

This year’s Spring Concert was a phenomenal coming together of students, faculty, staff, families, and friends. This was our first time holding the concert indoors, and the concert felt more formal and momentous as a result. 

Students performed repertoire that ranged from movie soundtracks to Irish polkas, jazz improvisation to familiar favorites. Teaching artist Ashley Frith sang “Dos Oruguitas,” and “I Lava You,” beautifully with a strong accompaniment from the ukulele classes. In addition to being excellent performers, the students were excellent audience members too, really listening and focusing on each class’s performance. 

In just a few short years, Global Arts students have learned how to make music together, work as an ensemble, and perform with thoughtfulness. 

Student mentors were also honored for spending their time assisting the beginner classes! Having eight second year students help out with stage crew, assist first year students, and lead by example was very impactful. 

The whole community came together to share food and laughter after the performance. We are so grateful to our parent coordinator Viviana for organizing parent volunteers and the potluck, it really felt like a meaningful gathering because of you! 

Check out a recording of the livestream on Instagram if you missed it!

Spring Concert Review: A Beautiful Gathering

This year’s Spring Concert was a phenomenal coming together of students, faculty, staff, families, and friends. This was our first time holding the concert indoors, and the concert felt more formal and momentous as a result. 

Students performed repertoire that ranged from movie soundtracks to Irish polkas, jazz improvisation to familiar favorites. Teaching artist Ashley Frith sang “Dos Oruguitas,” and “I Lava You,” beautifully with a strong accompaniment from the ukulele classes. In addition to being excellent performers, the students were excellent audience members too, really listening and focusing on each class’s performance. 

In just a few short years, Global Arts students have learned how to make music together, work as an ensemble, and perform with thoughtfulness. 

Student mentors were also honored for spending their time assisting the beginner classes! Having eight second year students help out with stage crew, assist first year students, and lead by example was very impactful. 

The whole community came together to share food and laughter after the performance. We are so grateful to our parent coordinator Viviana for organizing parent volunteers and the potluck, it really felt like a meaningful gathering because of you! 

Check out a recording of the livestream on Instagram if you missed it!

Spring Concert Review: A Beautiful Gathering

This year’s Spring Concert was a phenomenal coming together of students, faculty, staff, families, and friends. This was our first time holding the concert indoors, and the concert felt more formal and momentous as a result. 

Students performed repertoire that ranged from movie soundtracks to Irish polkas, jazz improvisation to familiar favorites. Teaching artist Ashley Frith sang “Dos Oruguitas,” and “I Lava You,” beautifully with a strong accompaniment from the ukulele classes. In addition to being excellent performers, the students were excellent audience members too, really listening and focusing on each class’s performance. 

In just a few short years, Global Arts students have learned how to make music together, work as an ensemble, and perform with thoughtfulness. 

Student mentors were also honored for spending their time assisting the beginner classes! Having eight second year students help out with stage crew, assist first year students, and lead by example was very impactful. 

The whole community came together to share food and laughter after the performance. We are so grateful to our parent coordinator Viviana for organizing parent volunteers and the potluck, it really felt like a meaningful gathering because of you! 

Check out a recording of the livestream on Instagram if you missed it!

Visit from Zimmitti Music Group

In our final Library Concert of the school year, musicians from the Zimmitti Music Group came for a visit. 

Music contractor Whitney Martin talked to students about how movies and TV shows are scored, and showed the students video footage from the scoring stages of Hollywood!

The students were then treated to performances of arrangements of music from Super Mario Brothers, Encanto, and West Side Story, first by a brass quintet, then a string quartet. 

These musicians have worked on sound tracks for some of the biggest films and TV shows, we were so lucky that they could visit us! 

This is a wrap on our first semester of hosting live music for Global Arts students on campus. We can’t wait to see what the fall will bring.

Pico Union Library Performance 

Last weekend, students of Global Arts gathered at the Pico Union Library for another awesome opportunity to perform for the community. The Library was hosting a Resource Fair,which brought together local community organizations, Los Angeles poets, and people from all over Pico Union. Our ukulele, winds, brass, and violin students played the songs they are preparing for the Global Arts Spring Concert, and the audience loved their performance! Afterwards the students and teachers were treated to tacos and aguas frescas. 

Thank you for having us Pico Union Library, we can’t wait to do it again.

Pico Union Library Performance 

Last weekend, students of Global Arts gathered at the Pico Union Library for another awesome opportunity to perform for the community. The Library was hosting a Resource Fair,which brought together local community organizations, Los Angeles poets, and people from all over Pico Union. Our ukulele, winds, brass, and violin students played the songs they are preparing for the Global Arts Spring Concert, and the audience loved their performance! Afterwards the students and teachers were treated to tacos and aguas frescas. 

Thank you for having us Pico Union Library, we can’t wait to do it again.

Spring Concert Live Stream: Save The Date

Our students are working hard to prepare for the spring concert! We will be live streaming the concert on our Instagram page for those who would like to see the progress our students have made this year. Be sure to follow us @globalartsla, then make some popcorn, and tune in May 19th at 4pm!

CicLAvia Recap

On Sunday, April 16th, Global Arts faculty, staff, and students spent the day soaking in the excitement of CicLAvia. The event closed down the streets of Pico Union to car traffic, and local organizations, pedestrians, and community members took over with bicycles, skates, scooters, and more. Global Arts set up a booth at the Pico Union hub, and were surrounding by wonderful organizations doing great work, like the LA Library, Pico Union Neighborhood Council, Metro, and Los Angeled Eco-Village!

Global Arts students serenaded the cyclists, and performed throughout the event, they were very much appreciated! The violin students performed solos and in pairs, and loved trying out the newest song they learned, Allegro. The winds and brass students had a lot of fun playing duets with their teachers, and even performed in front of the Metro Art Bus! 

Staff members met new friends, learned about other organizations in the neighborhood, and Ms. Kate and Ms. Viviana even tried out some roller skates. 

Thank you to all who visited us at our booth, we loved meeting you!

Library Concert Series Update

Last week, Global Arts welcomed Jeff DesRosier (brother of Global Arts Associate Director, Jackie) to the library for a live music experience. He and teaching artist Kate Outterbridge played upbeat Irish songs and tunes, and our students were so excited to hear a new style of music.

Many students were interested to hear about the communal culture of Irish music, and learned about the different time signatures and dances that are commonly heard in the genre. It was also meaningful for the violin students to see their teacher in a formal performance setting, and see what she can do! 

We love seeing our students embody new genres in these concerts, stay tuned for more updates about future performances!

CicLAvia Save the Date, Come Say Hi in Pico Union!

We are so excited that CicLAvia will be taking place in Pico Union on April 16th. If you have never been to a CicLAvia event, you won’t want to miss this! 

Inspired by Bogotá’s weekly ciclovía, CicLAvia temporarily closes streets to car traffic and opens them to Angelenos to use as a public park. Free for all, CicLAvia connects communities to each other across an expansive city, creating a safe place to bike, walk, skate, roll, and dance through Los Angeles County.

Global Arts will be there from 9am- 2pm, so be sure to stop by our booth and say hello! We will have some special solo and group performances by our students, prizes, and you may even see some of our teachers in rollerblades if you are lucky!

Global Arts Student’s Experience Live Music Again!

Last week, Alex Rosales García performed a riveting program for our young musicians at Global Arts. This was the second concert on our brand new Library Concert series, and the students had a blast! 

Alex demonstrated how the bassoon works, showed-off the bassoon’s many different sounds and styles, and shared moments from his life as a professional musician in Los Angeles. Many of our students expressed excitement and joy meeting Alex, and we are so happy we get to continue this series next month with a cello performance by Michelle Elliott Rearick. 

By bringing a professional musician to campus, our students are learning to engage meaningfully with live music, how to be active listeners, and are more and more inspired to be the best musicians they can be.

Global Arts at El Sistema Conference

In March, Jackie, our Associate Director and Brass Teaching Artist, presented two workshops on behalf of the Teaching Artists Teaching Institute at the El Sistema USA conference in Indianapolis. Her sessions focused on classroom management, non verbal communication, and how to effectively build rituals in the classroom.

Jackie worked with teachers and administrators from all over the United States and Canada! In addition to her workshops she enjoyed being able to connect with and learn from others in the music education field.

Global Arts Wins D’Addario Foundation Award

We are happy to share that we have been awarded a grant of $2,000 by the D’Addario Foundation. D’Addario is also supplying our program with accessories for our students’ instruments, so that they can sound their best. 

D’Addario is committed to providing access to inclusive, engaging music education and annually supports over 200 non-profit organizations. Through monetary and product support, D’Addario serves those who are serving their communities! 

Thank you D’Addario for supporting our work!

The Library Concert Series Begins

Our brand new Library Concert Series started with a bang or rather, and oompah, with a visit from Dr. Blake Cooper. For many of our students, this was their first time seeing a live music performance, and most had never seen a tuba played before! Dr. Blake shared a wide variety of arrangements of songs, shared his experiences as a professional musician in Los Angeles, chatted about how to be an expert audience memeber, and even held a mini-clinic on breathing for our winds and brass players. Thank you Dr. Blake! We are looking forward to our next guest, Alex Rosales García, at the end of March! 

Welcome to our Newest Class!

In February we welcomed 14 new ukulele students to our program! These students are starting out on ukulele to learn music fundamentals, and will join the Winds and Brass class in the fall. This class is full of excitement and curiosity. They are currently learning F and C chords, as well as the song “Naranja Dulce”!

Awarded Gold Transparency

We’re excited to share that Global Arts as earned a 2-22 Gold Seal of Transparency with Guidestar and Candid! Now, you can support our work with more turst and confidence than ever. Click here to see our profile.