George Newman
George Newman (CEO) - Founder and CEO of One Planet Education Network, LLC (OPEN), a mission-driven social enterprise that develops STEM+ Project-Based Learning and related online educational programs, technologies, and services. Newman has brought together a world-class team of educators, education technology consultants, and international organizations to deliver our STEM + Education programs focused on serving the local communities where our schools around the world are located.
Recently OPEN partnered with Allan Molnar, professor of music at Lehman College of NY City to bring you this unique and exciting new global cultures through music education program series - Music From Spaceship Earth – Cultural Histories of the World Through Music™. We created this program first to bring joy to children’s lives that are under stress from so many social, economic and physical factors, and to add value and meaning to our cross–border education exchanges that are the hallmark of OPEN programs. This is the PLUS in STEM + – STEM Education plus the Arts (MUSIC), Humanities, and Global Studies.
Music sparks the creativity within and inspires children like no other art form. Students can gain many insights and understanding about cultures that reside within each of our countries. This is the way to get to know the people and the histories of other strange lands past, present and future - what motivates and moves them, from the brain to the heart through the ears.
But in our programs students will also be performing real research – ethnomusicology research – the history of instruments, songs/compositions, chants that tell the stories of our respective cultures. We will sample as many different countries and cultures as we can over the years through this program, and have students learn from professionals and one another, creating new genres of music possibly, certainly songs, and maybe new music technologies and instruments.
We will integrate this with programs like the Pacheco Latin Jazz Annual Festival that Allan Molnar has created and hosted for many a year. Our students will have opportunities through Allan and others to learn how to become better musicians if they want to follow that aspect of our emerging program.
We have the good fortune to know many great musicians, songwriters, music composers and software engineers, and music industry people from the USA and many other countries across the world. We will invite them to join us and our students, to guide and support us. And hopefully in return we can also inspire these accomplished artists and professionals through this music and cross-culture learning adventure. We welcome you all out there to come along on our virtual journey to the far corners of our planet and back by way of just ONE musical note pure and easy (credit to PT)!