February 2021:
Mazz Swift

"If all you want to do is make beautiful things..that itself is sort of revolutionary. When I say that I like to make pretty things, it's because that's my calling. But I don't think that's necessarily the role of the artist in society. The role of the artist in society is to be an artist and to be themselves."

"Understanding of the beauty, depth, breadths and power of African American culture and how we are all affected by it on a global level...that actually makes me feel more centered and more important to me as an artist".

December 2020:
Rosabella Gregory

“I think that the fear of failure, stops you if you let it…you can't teach someone unless you can remember how it is to be taught…[and] all these things, I feel like they're connected to this idea of growth and being open.”

Native American Heritage Month - November 2020:
Tiffany Ayalik and Inuksuk Mackay

“Realizing the reasons why there are so many barriers to overcome, came together naturally in a way that we can be advocating for not only throat singing, but the reclamation of other areas of Inuit culture for us.”

Disability Employment Awareness Month - October 2020:
Adeliia Faizullina

“When I started, my approach to composing was linear thinking because Braille notation is linear, so I read Braille with my finger and memorized it.

I’m happy now because I can imagine textures and ideas with my inner hearing and without memorizing. I don't know if I would obtain this way of working I would be a sighted person.”

Hispanic Heritage Month - September 2020:
Angélica Negrón

"Being true to who I am as an artist and human... hopefully encouraging others to do the same and not feel that they have to perform whatever version of Latinidad you think others might want, that there's not such a thing.

There's multiplicities in all of us, and being an artist is a big part of it, it's expressing those through your art form."

Carla Canales, Mezzo-Soprano

Praised by Opera Magazine for a voice that “grabs the heartstrings with dramatic musicality.” Has received Sphinx Medal of Excellence, University of Michigan Alumni Award, engaged as Turnaround Artist on President's Committee for the Arts, and Musical America Mover and Shaper of 2018.

Joshua Cerdenia, Composer/Pianist

Originally from the Philippines and based in New York City. Work spans orchestral pieces, chamber music, art song, and musical theater, alumnus of The Juilliard School and current member of the Tony Award-winning BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

Sandeep Das, Indian Tabla

Leading Tabla virtuoso. Has collaborated, performed with, and composed for major symphony orchestras, string quartets, and jazz musicians with regularly featured concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall and the Concertgebouw. Recently named 2019 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and Silkroad Ensemble member.

Molly Joyce, Composer/Performer

Composer and performer whose work focuses on disability as a creative source, including activity on her vintage toy organ and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Music has been described as of “serene power” by the New York Times and “impassioned” by The Washington Post. Graduate of Juilliard, Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and Yale School of Music.

Kaoru Watanabe, Japanese Flute

Composer and musician whose performances are grounded in traditional Japanese music while inhabiting combinations of musical worlds. Performs on Japanese percussion and shinobue flute, and renowned for ability to collaborate with a diverse array of visionary international artists, including with Yo-Yo Ma, Jason Moran, and Silkroad Ensemble member.

Afghan Institute of Learning - Afghanistan

The Afghan Institute of Learning is a network of private educational schools led by Professor Sakena Yacoobi. They are are unique, scientific, cultural, and social organizations that provide high-quality services for boys and girls, including a safe atmosphere with standard classrooms where students are encouraged with creativity and skill-building. Moreover, the students are taught robotics, leadership, democracy, peace, and good governance through academic methods, and most students are now social activists and volunteers in their local communities. There are currently 2,000 students taught by nearly 100 experienced teachers.

Furthermore, Professor Sakena Yacoobi is an honoree with TCP’s Hear Her Song initiative, more information available here.

Lake Forest Elementary School - Pembroke Park, FL

Serving ages kindergarten - 5th grade and part of the Broward County Public Schools in Pembroke Park, FL. An initial partner with V-Pals since 2017, initiated through the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and Turnaround Arts.

Nyaka - Uganda

Nyaka provides community-based solutions to address the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in rural southwestern Uganda. They surround each child with a comprehensive support system, and this is comprised of interrelated programs developed and led by the community, where children are nurtured and protected so they can learn, grow, and thrive.

Nyaka and Kutamba Primary Schools were the first two schools opened and operated. Nyaka Primary School opened in 2003 and Kutamba Primary School in 2009. Unlike many schools in Uganda, the students do not have to pay any school fees, and are given everything they need to succeed: textbooks, uniforms, shoes, two meals every school day, medicine, and scholastic materials.

U.S. Embassy in Honduras

In a V-Pals Partnership, TCP Founder and Director Carla Canales will serve as a U.S. State Department Arts Envoy to lead a one-month virtual summer camp in July 2020 on character education for Honduran children. Through a partnership with the U.S. Embassy Honduras, Carla will lead 50 children in song and story while teaching values such as integrity, kindness, responsibility, and citizenship. Participating schools include IHCI Bilingual School (IBS), Centro Cultural Sampedrano, Escuela Experimental de Música para los Niños, and Fundación Artes Educativas Coros Y Orquestas de Honduras (FARECOH).

Carla Canales will lead a second virtual summer camp in August 2020 in partnership with U.S. Embassy Honduras to teach 50 Honduran high school music students entrepreneurship principles. Some of the topics include: turning a passion into a career, engaging an audience, and marketing. Participating schools include: Instituto Hondureno de Cultura Interamericana, Centro Cultural Sampedrano, Escuela Nacional de Musica, and Escuela Experimental de Musica para los Ninos. 

Sessions from both summer camps will be broadcast on U.S. Embassy Honduras' YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UCROldS2y7epS0FLQWcVxaHg) to enable more children and young adults to participate in these fun and interactive sessions. Student participants from both programs will serve as Young Ambassadors from Honduras in exchange with collegial V-Pals partners and participants worldwide.

Yidzat il kay Choir - Yucatán, Mexico

The Yidzat il kay Choir was started in February 2001 by founder Mtra. Psic. Isabel Ruz Sosa, and in her 19 years of experience has been formed by children from various towns in the state of Yucatan: Yobain, Dzilam de Bravo, Dzilam González, Comisaría Santa María and San Antonio Xiat de Cansahcab, Comisaría Xbec de Buctzotz and Dzidzantún himself, where the San Francisco Tzacalha AC Cultural Center is based in the Old Hospital of the Hacienda San Francisco.

The choir has had various performances, the most important being: the Carmina Burana with the Yucatan State Symphony at the José Peón Contreras Theater in Mérida, Yuc., Under the direction of Mtro. Juan Felipe Molano (2005 and 2007) and 2008 with Mtro. Francisco Savin. The Requiem of Faure (2009) under the Dir. Del Mtro. José Luis Chan Sabido, the performance of the Mexican National Anthem accompanied by the Yucatan State Music Band. The Yidzat il Kay Choir has also welcomed with their voices the Nobel Prize Rigoberta Menchú, the Tenor Placido Domingo, the French Ambassador to Mexico Daniel Parfaint and Francine Cousteau. In addition, they were awarded at the White House by Mrs. Laura Bush with the International Prize "Coming Up Workshop 2007" (received in January 2008) making a presentation in the city of Washington D.C. before the ambassador Arturo Sarukán. That same year I participate in the opening and closing of the "8th. International Choir Meeting "that was held in November (2008) in Yucatan and attended the" 1st. Children's Meeting of Traditional Music ”(Dec. 2008) in Villahermosa, Tabasco representing Yucatan.

The group regularly receives invitations from the State Institute of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism Promotion for private events. Yidzat il Kay has a varied repertoire that includes regional music with pre-Hispanic instruments in the Mayan and Spanish languages ​​(jarana and local composers), Mexican, international and classical music where they have had great success with opera scenes sung and performed. Its artistic director since 2004 is the tenor Eduardo Zarracino Castellanos.