Welcome to The Multicultural Music Group 2012-13 school year. We are proud to be entering our seventeenth year of service to the New York City youth and the general community.

There are new and exciting projects in the works for this year. We would like to welcome The Elias Bernstein intermediate school 7 to our roster. IS 7 is located in Staten Island and is home to an eighty piece orchestra.

This year, the MMG will serve over nine hundred students directly and over 9,000, indirectly through classes, workshops, field trips and presentations. Our mission still aims high for cultural understanding. The use of our most effective tool: a combination of global history, music performance and aesthetic reflection, help our students  to improve their academic achievement, music proficiency, affective skills, and social justice awareness. Furthermore, our general audiences not only beneficiate from our presentations by acquiring historical information and musical knowledge but they experience the opportunity to relate the history/music relationship into a unique aesthetic experience.

The Multicultural Music Group remains committed to creating a legacy of global understanding through the arts. For the past two years, we have been involved in a research project in collaboration with the Center for Arts Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and the William T. Grant Foundation. The investigation is entitled: “Playing History” and studies the impact of our Symphonic Youth Program on the student’s academic, music and affective/social skills. So far, the outcomes of last year’s research demonstrated outstanding improvement in the music and social skill development. Other findings such as the correlation among social studies- music –diversity and interpersonal skills validated our claims for cultural understanding by affecting aspects of human behavior which consequently  have an effect on the individual, their families and communities.

Our Multicultural Music Encounters program will be held in June of 2013 and will feature great music dignitaries such as: Ray Santos, Bob Stewart, Papo Vazquez and Bruce Purse. The events will feature panel discussions, performances of the commissioned works by a thirty piece orchestra and reflections on the history/music combination.

Our staff, faculty and board members welcomes everyone to an exciting year of activities. We look forward for a continuation of success and growth.