When you read Playing for Their Lives (coming out in September!) you will find quite a bit about the beautiful work unfolding in Nairobi, Kenya. There are strong leaders, and a tradition of classical music in the Nairobi Symphony Orchestra that goes back almost a century to colonial times, during which British musicians paid to

“A cop got shot last night, right here,” said our guide…  …as we got out of his car in front of Ação Social pela Música, an El Sistema nucleo in a Rio de Janeiro favela that has long been notorious for gang violence. “Right here” meant right in front of the Pentecostal Church where Ação Social

Rowena’s mother was nervous about her English, when I asked her if I could interview her.  We were sitting in a hallway in downtown Manila while the Orchestra of Filipino Youth (OFY) rehearsed in a large room where bankers once did business.  She had traveled with her daughter two hours from their small house in