El Sistema, Venezuela
Led by organist, economist, and politician José Antonio Abreu, FESNOJIV (the State Foundation for the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras), more commonly known as “El Sistema,” teaches music to 300,000 of Venezuela’s poorest children. It is a tested model of how a music program can create both great musicians and dramatically change the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of a nation’s neediest kids. Amongst its graduates, El Sistema has nurtured international musicians such as Edicson Ruiz and Gustavo Dudamel and the world-renowned Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra.
NEC (New England Conservatory)
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.
The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.
NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top,” a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.
TED Prize
The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas and resources that are generated at TED and using them to make a difference. Although the winners receive a prize of $100,000 each, that’s the least of what they get. The real prize is that they are granted a WISH. A wish to change the world.
For details on all the TED Prize winners, visit TEDPrize.org
When Jose Antonio Abreu was awarded the TED Prize this year, he was given $100,000 and one wish to change the world. His wish:
“I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.”
TED
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader, with one mission: Spreading ideas.
The annual TED Conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
TED.com, in turn, makes the best talks, demos and performances from TED and selected partner conferences available to the public, for free. Some 450 talks from their archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
TED believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.
To learn more about TED, visit TED.com
Quincy Jones MusiQ Consortium
The Quincy Jones MusiQ Consortium is uniting leaders from all sectors of music education to share resources, networks, ideas and passion to make music education an ongoing part of the lives of children in the U.S. The goals of the Consortium are to: Increase the percentage of children that are participating in at school and after school music programs; increase the quality and number of music educators in the United States as well as employment opportunities for those best qualified; and, via partnership with the participants, develop shared advocacy and funding initiatives for youth music programs.
League of American Orchestras
The mission of the League of American Orchestras is to lead, encourage, support, and serve orchestras as they assure the vitality of the musical experience, strengthen the entire orchestral organization, and deepen their connections with their public and their communities. Founded in 1942, the League serves nearly 1,000 member symphony, chamber, youth, and university orchestras of all sizes, and supports a network of thousands of administrators, board members, musicians, conductors, volunteers, and business partners.
Alberston Design
Albertson Design is a creative services company specializing in brand identity and design communications for print and interactive media.
Led by creative director David Albertson, our team of designers, writers, and programmers has launched media companies (see Make), built consumer networks (see MotorMouths), and re-imagined what is activism (see Slow Food Nation).
Our skills as creative collaborators allow us to partner with visionary companies and tell their stories in beautiful and innovative ways.
futureprüf // web design + development
futureprüf offers comprehensive web services for small to large business and non-profits. We design elegant ideas, experience, pixels and code.
Ideation, Information Architecture, User Experience, User Interface, database design, front-end development, back-end development, web application development, project management, Quality Control, Search Engine Optimization, onsite training, complete Content Management Systems.
Mosso | The Rackspace Cloud
Mosso | The Rackspace Cloud, provides on-demand scalable website, application and storage hosting backed by Fanatical Support®. Through its suite of cloud solutions, Cloud Sites™, Cloud Files™ and Cloud Servers™, The Rackspace Cloud enables astute developers and IT managers to minimize the hassles, upfront investments and high costs associated with dedicated hardware while offering the ability to easily scale hosting resources. For more information about The Rackspace Cloud, visit www.rackspacecloud.com
SubscriberMail
SubscriberMail® is one of the leading email marketing service providers offering sophisticated tools to develop and deliver professional email communications. The firm has served many leading organizations including Harley-Davidson, The Chicago Bulls, Brunswick and a broad variety of businesses with their email marketing campaigns.
