United Sound Inc

Composer project - we worked to form strategic alliances with teachers, students, and composers. For teachers, we are working on making the process of finding and obtaining diverse new music easier. For students, we are working on increasing access and opportunity, enabling more young people to play more diverse music at much younger ages. For composers, we are building structure to support the writing and distribution process.

Play with US Program: this program was created as we navigated the "new normal" during the pandemic. Even though our peer mentoring programs couldn't meet in person, our focus still remained on students with disabilities and by extension their teachers and parents. The Play with US program brings the music class directly into self-contained special education classrooms by partnering with schools across the country to provide weekly interactive videoconference music classes. At the junior high and high school levels, general music is typically not an option and electives are being cancelled. Play with US enables special education teachers to participate with their students in an active music-making class that utilizes the existing United Sound curriculum and foundations. In addition to weekly music classes, instrument kits were provided to all participants and their teachers truly making this an interactive and fun class for all. For the 24-25 academic year, we had 46 classrooms/teachers participating in Play with US and were able to bring the joy of music into the lives of over 460 special education students.

In 2022, United Sound merged with another 501(c)(3) public charity, Tempe Symphonic Wind Ensemble Association, a community ensemble based in Tempe, Arizona. the conductor of the Tempe Winds retired and this merger allowed this ensemble to continue to exist and also benefited United Sound's composer project.