OneBeat 2016 Concert at Timucua White House

Presented by Found Sound Nation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Timucua Arts Foundation and
The Civic Minded 5

7 PM doors, 7:30 PM concert
Timucua White House, 2000 S. Summerlin Ave, Orlando
Donations encouraged

Now in its fifth year, OneBeat is cultivating a pioneering international network of leading artistic, technological, and social innovators in music. An initiative of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in collaboration with the groundbreaking New York-based music organization Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation, OneBeat employs collaborative original music as a potent new form of cultural diplomacy.

OneBeat brings musicians (ages 19-35) from around the world to the U.S. for one month each fall to collaboratively write, produce, and perform original music, and develop strategies for arts-based social engagement. OneBeat begins with an opening residency, when Fellows collaborate to create original material, record new musical ideas, and incubate their projects. OneBeat fellows then go on tour, performing for a wide array of American audiences, collaborating with local musicians, and leading workshops with youth. In a closing residency, each OneBeat musician sets out their plans for the future, developing projects in their home countries linked to a mutually-reinforcing network of music-driven social enterprises.

OneBeat is a musical journey like no other. It is a chance for adventurous musicians from an incredible diversity of traditions to seek common ground, create new musical combinations, push the boundaries of music technology, and find ways to involve all members of society in the process of musical creativity. OneBeat endeavors to be the nexus of a new way of thinking about how music can help us collectively build healthy communities, prosperous societies, and a more peaceful world.

One Beat, Three Approaches: We encourage OneBeat Fellows to work together, across borders of musical traditions and backgrounds, in three complementary approaches that we call Analog, Digital, and Social. Analog refers to creating music the ‘old fashioned’ way, getting together to explore new music with instruments and voices. In the Digital approach, OneBeat fellows make use of the latest digital technology, and work with music and video software programs. Using the Social approach, OneBeat fellows develop music-driven social enterprises, ranging from youth hip-hop education centers to music therapy practices to socially-engaged record labels.

The OneBeat Philosophy: OneBeat is designed with the belief that the creation of high-quality original music is an ideal vehicle for crossing cultural and political divides. This creative process exemplifies how people from dramatically different musical backgrounds, with diverse training, conceptions of music, and aesthetics, can negotiate differences and find an interplay of cultures that maintains the integrity of each tradition. At OneBeat we encourage musicians to listen deeply to each others’ musical voices, and to create work that values the complexity and idiosyncrasies of each tradition, creating risky, wholly unique musical works. This type of egalitarian, cross-cultural interaction continues in our discussions of social issues, as we find ways to use music to catalyze positive change in our communities and internationally.

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