Eric Harland
Four-time GRAMMY nominee, drummer, composer“Music Action Lab is giving birth to inspiration and creativity, cross-pollinating cultures and joining mind, heart, and spirit to create a unified movement. That’s amazing.”
The Music Action Lab is is a global network of musical innovators working together to design solutions and create new music in service of a better world.
“Music Action Lab is a life-changing experience and a fantastic platform for artists to learn and act.”
—Farhan Bogra
Music Action Lab 1.0 Fellow
Peshawar, Pakistan
“I’ve always believed that I am here for a purpose, and the Music Action Lab helped me understand more clearly what that purpose was. In just one month, the Lab was the full package for me to shape my goals in life and understand what I am fighting for: change, social justice, and to use my voice as a contribution to the renaissance of this world.”
—Teta, Rwanda
“Music Action Lab’s strength and uniqueness lies in the components centered around entrepreneurship and social development. The difficult process of defining the undefinable is essential to harnessing music’s expansive scope, redirecting it toward an objective to make our life, and the lives around us, better. Music Action Lab took on this mountain of a task in a bold way, embracing the latest in technological, entrepreneurial and cultural thinking. I am grateful for the newfound tools I’ve internalized from this program which I can now use to pursue my own path in the global arts community.”
—Derek Beckvold, USA
“The musicians sounded perfect, I couldn’t even believe how good the music was, and how they dealt with each other to find one path. This is the most essential part about making music… inspiring each other and being enriched from others. I give my full support and admiration to the Music Action Lab, because its work is just crucial in our day and a big source of energy.”
—Emel Mathlouthi, "Voice of the Tunisian Revolution" (NPR)
“The end product of the Giant Steps/Music Action Lab is re-making the place of music in our society and creating musicians qua changemakers. Musicians in fellowship learn the ends and outs of social change even as they deepen our appreciation that music is the language of humanity and that makes it the language of social entrepreneurship. Music Action Lab reflects the heart of social entrepreneurship: individual virtuosity combined with collective will in the service of a better world.”
— Jonathan Lewis, Founder, Opportunity Collaboration; Professor, NYU Reynolds Center of Social Entrepreneurship; Author, The Unfinished Social Entrepreneur
“As a partner at innovation think-tank Prototype Thinking Labs, we work with hundreds of social entrepreneurs, startups, and companies every year. The Music Action Lab Fellows stood out like a lantern for their depth of character, wisdom, and commitment. In a space where “passion” and “impact” can just be buzzwords, I was so impressed with this community’s deep entrenchment in on-the-ground action, just as I was with the profound kindness that permeated the space. These are people who don’t quit-- and not because they are trying to make the “next big thing”, but because they are trying to make the next unsexy thing that has to happen and can feel that need in their bones. This is the right way to do diversity.”
— J Li, Managing Partner, Prototype Thinking Labs
