The VISION Collective

Who We Are…

The VISION Collective was founded in 2018 at The Juilliard School by Executive Director and cellist Drake Driscoll, Director of Programming and violist Sarah Sung, and Artistic Advisor and violinist Timothy Chooi.

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Our Mission…

The VISION Collective builds meaningful relationships with and among refugees and new Americans by sharing and exchanging music between diverse communities.

 
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Projects

Local Concerts and Workshops (In Three Steps)

  • An initial conversation between VISION artists/collaborating composer and interested participants.

  • VISION artists, along with a collaborating composer, arrange musical selections that represent music from the participants’ home countries or music that is particularly meaningful to them. 

  • A concert/workshop where VISION artists share their own favorite music and present the new arrangements/compositions. In a workshop setting, participants will listen, learn to sing the melodies, and use percussion to play along.

VISION’s current partners are Building One Community and the YMCA New Americans Initiative.

International Concerts and Workshops (In Three Steps)

  • An initial conversation between The VISION Collective and settlement staff in order to get to know the demographic of the residents. 

  • VISION artists, along with a collaborating composer, arrange and compose musical selections that draw inspiration from the residents’ backgrounds and cultures.

  • A concert/workshop where VISION artists share their own favorite music and present the new arrangements/compositions. In a workshop setting, participants will listen, learn to sing the melodies, and use percussion to play along.

In the summer of 2019, VISION took their work overseas for the first time, performing one interactive concert at each of three refugee camps in central Germany, interacting with approximately 120 children and adults from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, and Turkey.

Spreading Awareness (In Two Ways)

  • Performing and recording works by refugee and immigrant composers.

  • Sharing migrant stories and facts/statistics related to the migrant crisis with the general public through social media.

The melody movement
- coming soon -

  • A community music program, implemented in refugee settlements, focused on improving the mental health of migrants. The first full program will take place in Berlin, Germany, beginning August 2023.