On Sunday, May 17, the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles received a special guest at its weekly rehearsal. Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, visited and conducted the orchestra in rehearsal of the Finale from Dvorak's Ninth Symphony (New World), and Danzon#2 by Arturo Marquez. It was an exciting experience for the young musicians of ICYOLA; one even described it as an "out of body experience!" And Mr. Dudamel was as charming,...

We are currently raising the first generation in human history whose primary mode of experiencing the world is mediated through a glass screen. From the age of four through early adulthood, many children spend more time interacting with pixels than with nature, tactile materials, or live human ensembles.

The 1930s and 1940s represent a watershed moment in American musical history, a period when African American musicians fundamentally reimagined the possibilities of both jazz and classical music. While the Great Depression cast its shadow across the nation, and the world hurtled toward and through the Second World War, a remarkable generation of Black artists was crafting a sonic revolution that would reverberate through the remainder of the twentieth century and into our present day.