Uplifting Communities: Music As a Force of Change

Owsley Brown III, Producer; Director
Sandy Tolan, Journalist; Author
Eugene Rodriguez, Executive Director, Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy
David Stull, President, San Francisco Conservatory of Music – Moderator

This program is part of the 2015 Platforum series Music Matters, sponsored by Ernst & Young and the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation.

Each member of this inspiring panel employs music to grapple with pressing social issues. Stull explores how music can rebuild and uplift communities through hardship and conflict. As an award-winning film director, Brown's third feature film, Kè Kontan / Joyful Heart, follows the Holy Trinity Music School in Haiti as it navigates poverty, crime, and natural disaster. Tolan’s recently published book Children of the Stone tells the journey of a young Palestinian man as he builds a music conservatory under military occupation. Rodriguez (SF Conservatory of Music alumnus ‘87) founded Los Cenzontles in crime-ridden Richmond, California, creating an enduring arts space in a strip mall. Join us as we hear how Brown, Tolan, Rodriguez and Stull use their work to positively influence the community. Music Matters

August 27, 2015