Community Partnerships

Community Partnerships allow AFA to work alongside other organizations to deliver programming in a variety of settings, bringing diverse voices and variegated viewpoints. AFA’s years of experience in curriculum design and implementation as well as collaborative work allow us to efficiently create and deliver impactful work together with our partners. Below are a selection of our current and recent collaborations.

Do you have an idea for a collaboration or partnership? Contact us!

DACAMERA Young Artist Program

AFA Chamber Music Academy & Composition Studies

The DACAMERA Young Artist Program is composed of young musicians embarking on the early stages of their careers. This partnership plugs them into two AFA programs. For the AFA Chamber Music Academy, these experienced musicians demonstrate the ins and outs of effective rehearsal and performance methods and give general music and career advice. Additionally, the Young Artists offer reading sessions for students in the AFA Composition Studies program, giving composers the invaluable opportunity of hearing their pieces in the hands of live musicians who give helpful feedback.

Houston Symphony and DeLUXE Theater

DeLUXE K!ds In Harmony

This program, begun in Fall 2022, offers violin instruction to third- and fourth-graders in Houston’s Fifth Ward. Modeled on the El Sistema instructional model, this tuition-free program meets three times each week and provides violins to students free of charge. In the El Sistema tradition, students maintain a busy performance schedule, allowing them to get used to playing in front of audiences and adding motivation to learn new music.

Houston Ballet Academy

AFA Summer Music Festival Composition Intensive

AFA’s first collaboration, this program pairs young composers with choreographers from the Houston Ballet Academy Summer Intensive. Under the guidance of each organization’s Faculty Artists, these young musicians and dancers create and premiere original ballets. To date over 130 new such works have been performed.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

AFA Summer Music Festival Composition Intensive

As part of each Summer Music Festival, students in the Composition Intensive create original musical works inspired by art at MFAH. Under the guidance of MFAH education staff, composers learn about various works of art, then channel this inspiration into a piece for solo instrument. Each of these pieces is then performed by an AFA high school musician in front of the specific painting that inspired it.

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