Trade Winds Ensemble

Trade Winds Ensemble (TWE) is a group of professional musicians who teach workshops incorporating music composition, songwriting, interactive games, and creative writing to children around the world. We encourage our students to push the boundaries of their creativity and courage; we remind them that they are empowered to make their voices heard. Through musical games, composition activities, and participatory performances that celebrate individuality and build community, we prioritize and uphold every person’s unique identity. We encourage each other, as well as fellow music teachers everywhere, to criticize the colonialist tendencies of music education and respond through subversive just action. We design lesson plans with consideration to what our students need and what they already know. These lessons are created within the context of each community’s history of colonization and oppression.