Now in its seventh year, 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. During the month, each OneBeat musician also sets out their plans for the future, developing projects in their home countries linked to a mutually-reinforcing network of music-driven social enterprises. For this event, OneBeat musicians will perform for Baltimore audiences.

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. 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

Come early at 6pm for a special Street Studio event! Join us! Participate with us! Create music with us!

The premise is simple: transport the basic elements of a recording studio – mics, engineer, instruments, musicians – to a public place and invite passers-by to participate in a collaborative concert, recording session, and jam. Afterwards, the recorded sessions are produced into sets of songs that are shared with all who participated. A sort of musical collective unconscious of a time and place.

The Street Studio was first implemented the 2011 Lucerne Festival in Switzerland with Found Sound Nation. Since 2011 we’ve put studios on the streets of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Rufisque (Senegal), Camden (Maine), and in collaboration with festivals around the world, including: Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, Lincoln Center Out of Doors in New York, Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York, and Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine.