A new ESUSA professional development series for Teaching Artists, Program Directors, and Organization Leaders. Wednesdays at 12-1pm ET / 9-10am PT, October 2026 through May 2027, on Zoom. Free to ESUSA members.
Join ESUSA members from across the country to learn about a concept presented by practitioners within the El Sistema-inspired network. This season we welcome 5 members to share their expertise alongside 2 guest consultants. Topics ranging from instrument specific pedagogies to data to fundraising, there’s something for everyone in the ESUSA network.
Pick the ones interesting, useful, or relevant to you and your program. Bring your lunch (or breakfast!) and tune in for an hour to learn. There’s no need to prepare anything in advance. This is a learning space to hear from a fellow member program or guest consultant to learn what’s working in their program and how it might be applicable to yours.
Every session is recorded in full and available to members in the ESUSA library, alongside the presenter’s slides and handouts. We kindly ask that you only register for the sessions you will attend. This helps our speakers plan their sessions accordingly.
Email Gabrielle Molina, Director of Programs, at gabrielle@elsistemausa.org
THE SEASON
Sam Fundamentals & Paper Orchestra: Music as a Community-Building Laboratory
Samuel Marchán. Artistic Director, East River Children and Youth Orchestras. Director of Orchestra, Paper Orchestra and Viola Programs, WHIN Music Community Charter School.
Tone comes out of friction organized in time, and Samuel can show you that with a sheet of paper and a metronome. He runs a condensed version of Sam Fundamentals and the Paper Orchestra: arm geometry, pulse regulation, and elasticity drills that build real technique before a single instrument is in the room. If you are starting a program, rebuilding one, or waiting on an instrument order, you will leave with low-cost tools you can use next week.
Questions in Spanish are welcome at this session.
Samuel Marchán is an El Sistema-trained musician, educator, and Juilliard School graduate (Class of 1995), recognized for his leadership in music education and advocacy for Hispanic chamber music. A violist and founding member of the Carpentier Quartet, he has premiered works by more than 40 Latin American composers. Marchán is a pioneer of the Paper Orchestra Program in New York City and has helped found and cofound influential music education initiatives including the Harmony Program, Opportunity Music Project, United Children’s Music Project, and the East River Children and Youth Orchestras Program. He has served as a coach and teacher trainer for organizations nationwide, including El Sistema Lehigh Valley, UpBeat NYC, the Sphinx Organization, the New Jersey Symphony, the Lincoln Center Festival, and the New York Philharmonic, as well as in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Currently, he is a full-time orchestra conductor and director of orchestra, paper orchestra, and viola programs (grades 1 to 8) at WHIN Music Community Charter School. He is also a violin and viola faculty member at the Kaufman Music Center. His work has been featured by Telemundo, Univision, and PBS.
Building Intentional Organizational Structures to Support Youth Leadership
Zoë Auerbach. CHIME and Young Leaders Director, Empire State Youth Orchestra. Leader, ESUSA Youth Leadership Institute 2026-27 cohort.
Youth leadership usually shows up as a one-off opportunity rather than something an organization is built to hold. CHIME at ESYO has been building intentional organizational structure to support youth leadership for the last several years. Zoë walks through the structure they built, what they learned putting it in place, and what it asked of the adults. If you lead a program and are weighing whether your organization could carry real pathways for young people, this is the hour to find out what it takes. CHIME at ESYO, Zoë, and two Youth Ambassadors are part of the Youth Leadership Institute inaugural cohort.
Zoë Auerbach is a violinist, teacher, and arts leader grounded in music as a personal and collective practice of connection, craft, clarity, and expression. As the CHIME & Young Leaders Director at Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO), she designs and leads programs deeply committed to expanding access, elevating student agency, and building community through music. A native New Yorker raised in a family of musicians, artists, and scientists, Zoë brings an interdisciplinary perspective to her work, shaped by the guiding belief that curiosity, exploration, and art are foundational to learning and the human experience.
Beyond Attendance Data: How to Measure and Advocate for Music Education
Adam Karelin-Anderson. Executive and Artistic Director, Riverside Arts Academy. Principal Conductor, Riverside Youth Orchestra.
Enrollment, attendance, and retention have kept programs alive. Adam makes the case for a third number: what students are actually learning musically. He looks at how Virginia, Texas, and New York built assessments that administrators and funders can read, and how to name measurable indicators inside your own program. You will leave with language for using that data to ask for what your students need.
Adam Karelin-Anderson is the Executive & Artistic Director of the Riverside Arts Academy (RAA), a nonprofit providing music education to more than 600 students across Southern California’s Inland Empire. Through robust partnerships with school districts, universities, and civic institutions, RAA works to ensure that young people have access to rigorous, joyful, and culturally affirming music education.
During his tenure, Karelin-Anderson has scaled RAA’s regional footprint. RAA’s mariachi programs serve over a dozen public schools, and the organization’s ensembles, including the Riverside Youth Orchestra and Mariachi Campana de Riverside, perform throughout the region, reaching tens of thousands of audience members annually.
His work as a composer and conductor has taken him across the world, from Finland, to Bulgaria, to the Aspen Music Festival. His music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Thornton Symphony Orchestra, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony Fellows, the Hear Now Festival, and others. In 2018, he received the ASCAP Morton Gould Award for his orchestral work, “Constructs.”
Karelin-Anderson holds degrees in Arts Leadership (M.S.) and Composition (B.M.) from the University of Southern California, where he graduated as the valedictorian.
Karelin-Anderson is an avid puckhead and cruciverbalist. He lives in Riverside with his husband, Holden, and their cat, Mila.
Brass-ics!: Designing Literacy-Centered Brass Programs with an El Sistema Approach
Dr. Raul M. Rodriguez. Brass Teaching Artist, WHIN Music Community Charter School.
Brass-ics! is the system Raul built at WHIN, where fundamentals, repertoire, and music theory are one structure instead of three separate things students have to connect on their own. Instruction runs in Spanish and English. He shows how literacy sits inside instrumental teaching rather than beside it, and how a shared vocabulary gives students ownership of their own progress. Built for brass, and the design carries to any section you teach.
Questions in Spanish are welcome at this session.
Dr. Raul M. Rodriguez is a Honduran-born French horn player, educator, and program builder based in New York City. Born and raised in Honduras, he is the first Honduran-born horn player to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. His work bridges professional performance, music education, and program development within community-centered music initiatives.
Dr. Rodriguez currently serves as Brass Teaching Artist at WHIN Music Community Charter School in Washington Heights, where he designed and implemented a literacy-centered brass program within an El Sistema-inspired educational model. His instructional framework, Brass-ics!, is a centralized learning system that integrates fundamentals, music literacy, and ensemble development to support student ownership and artistic growth.
Over more than two decades of teaching and program development, Dr. Rodriguez has contributed to music education initiatives in the United States and internationally, including work with community music programs, youth orchestras, and arts-focused institutions. His approach focuses on building structured instrumental programs that remove barriers to musical literacy while maintaining high artistic expectations.
In addition to his educational work, Dr. Rodriguez maintains an active performance career as a French horn player, collaborating with orchestras and ensembles across the United States and abroad.
From First Conversation to Confident Ask: A Major Gifts Meeting Sequence That Works
Derry Deringer. Founder and Principal, Deringer Consulting. A fundraising consultant to nonprofits, and a familiar face from the Consultants Office Hour at the Baltimore regional.
Major gifts do not happen by accident, and they do not happen by script either. Most of Derry’s clients need the same thing: a practical structure for moving a donor relationship toward an ask without asking too soon or cultivating forever. He walks through the Three Meetings Method, a no-script meeting planning template, and how to secure the meeting in the first place. For executive directors, development staff, and board members who want more clarity and less anxiety in their major gift work, timed to land ahead of the July 1 fiscal year.
Derry Deringer is the founder and principal of Deringer Consulting, LLC, a practice specializing in major gifts and capital campaign fundraising for nonprofits. With more than 20 years in the field and over 100 clients served, Derry brings a practitioner’s depth to every engagement, advising and coaching staff and board fundraisers to achieve transformative revenue results.
More than half of Deringer Consulting’s clients work in the human services sector, reflecting Derry’s commitment to strengthening organizations that serve communities with the greatest need. Derry’s career spans business, nonprofit, and international organizations, offering a cross-sector perspective that is rare in fundraising consulting.
Certified in facilitation, coaching, and fundraising, Derry is a trusted voice in the nonprofit community and a sought-after speaker, facilitator, and advisor. Derry and his family live in Alexandria, Virginia.
Choose It, Teach It, Contextualize It, or Replace It? Navigating Songs with Complex Histories
Maria Del Valle Brin. Music Supervisor, The Equity Project Charter School. Founder, Upbeat Collaborative.
Songs with minstrel and caricature histories are still sitting in method books and ensemble arrangements, and they often reach teachers with no context attached. Maria walks through how they got there, then separates the musical skill from the song, because articulation and phrasing can be taught through many traditions. You will leave with a framework for deciding when to teach the history and when to replace the piece, and a checklist for reviewing your own library.
Questions in Spanish are welcome at this session.
Maria Del Valle Brin is a three-time GRAMMY-nominated music educator, author, and educational consultant dedicated to expanding access to meaningful music education for young people. Originally from Puerto Rico and raised in Ohio and Florida, she now calls New York City home.
Maria holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Florida, a Performer’s Certificate in Flute, and a Master’s Degree in Music Education from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Music Education at Boston University, where her research focuses on culturally sustaining pedagogy, inclusive music education, and teacher development.
With more than fourteen years of experience, Maria has designed and led music programs in international schools, charter schools, and El Sistema-inspired initiatives both in New York City and abroad. She began her career teaching at an international school in Tanzania before moving to New York, where she has founded and revitalized music programs serving diverse communities.
She is also the founder of Upbeat Collaborative, a professional learning community that supports music educators through coaching, curriculum, and collaborative learning. She also leads the ShineBright Initiative, which provides community-based arts programming and musical opportunities for young people in Uptown Manhattan. Through these initiatives, Maria works with schools, teachers, and arts organizations to strengthen music programs and expand access to high-quality arts education.
Lesson Planning — A Practical and Tactical Session for Teaching Artists
Angela Schendel Keedy. Executive Director, Atlas Educational Consulting. Professional Development Specialist, NAfME Connected Arts Networks.
Teaching artists often plan alone, with no department and no template. Angela has spent her career building professional learning for music educators, most recently coaching teacher leaders nationwide through NAfME’s Connected Arts Networks. She works through the practical side: building a unit that holds up across weeks, adjusting when the room does not cooperate, and writing plans someone else could pick up. Timed for the end of the year, when next year gets built.
Angela Schendel Keedy is an arts education leader with a distinguished record of designing, delivering, and scaling professional learning for music and arts educators at the school, nonprofit organizational, state, and national levels. Combining hands-on classroom experience as a music educator with executive leadership in school and nonprofit settings, Angie brings a rare blend of instructional depth and organizational strategy to the training and development of educators.
As Professional Development Specialist and Content Manager for the Connected Arts Networks grant at the National Association for Music Education, Angie supported large-scale communication and engagement efforts reaching more than 50,000 members and provided direct mentorship and instructional coaching to teacher leaders nationwide, helping them build standards-based units and arts-focused resources. Through Atlas Educational Consulting, she has provided targeted teaching artist training and support as well as nonprofit leadership coaching that strengthened instructional practices, data informed decision making, organizational effectiveness and equity-centered practices.
A frequent keynote and featured presenter, including at the NAfME Biennial Conferences, Florida Music Educators Conference, and NAEA Pacific Region Summer Leadership Conference, Angie has written cover stories for Teaching Music Magazine on social-emotional learning and PLC-based professional growth models.
Ms. Keedy holds a Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from the University of Montana, a Master of Arts in Music from the University of Northern Colorado, and is currently completing a Doctor of Arts in Music Education, ABD.