Support Our Community Programs for Amplify Austin

Austin Soundwaves has worked closely with schools in partnership to bring accessible and equitable music learning since our founding in 2011. Now at over 14 schools and serving 651 students and counting, we have developed our community-based offerings to provide an even more well-rounded breadth of programming for students, both at our in-school partners and beyond.

The Draylen Mason Fellows Program is a community initiative for rising high school students from across the Austin metroplex. Inherently student-led, DMFP focuses on creative youth development practices to enrich each fellow as they address social issues important to them through music-making and other art forms. DMFP was founded in 2018 in memory of longtime Austin Soundwaves student and bassist, Draylen Mason, who was killed in the Austin package bombings in March of that year, and serves to inspire students and embody the spirit of Draylen, who was both a talented musician and an inspiring community leader.

With support from the National Guild for Community Arts Education and Lifetime Arts, we started Mariachi Para Todos in the spring of 2021, a reboot of our mariachi programming with a slight twist: the ensemble is made up of students from ages 14 to 65 and up. The pandemic helped us to realize that there are so many ways to serve our community through music and the arts - along with our recently started Soundwaves Community Symphony, these intergenerational programs provide students of all ages with music-making and ensemble opportunities and bring together people from different backgrounds and highlights the diversity of the communities we serve.

Austin Soundwaves will kick off Amplify Austin this year with a free in-person event with Mariachi Para Todos, where guests will get a chance to see them in rehearsal and performance.

This event will take place on Wednesday, March 2nd from 6-8pm on the campus of East Austin College Prep (5800 E Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd). We will also live-stream the performance and provide free tacos and Austin Soundwaves swag from 6-7pm. Our goal is to raise $15,000 in 24 hours in order to keep our community music programs free for all.

To attend, please visit this Eventbrite link and RSVP by noon on Tuesday, March 1st.