Announcing the 2022 Jennifer Saltzstein Kaffenberger Fellowship Recipients

For the fifth year, Arts Ignite is honored to select a group of remarkable artists as recipients of the Jennifer Saltzstein Kaffenberger Fellowship to work with Arts Ignite at the Newcomer Youth Summer Academy 2022. We are excited to announce this year’s fellows – Concerts for Compassion. 

Concerts for Compassion (CFC) facilitates cross-cultural integration by bringing music and education to displaced peoples and their local communities, playing in venues ranging from refugee camps to concert halls. They are an exemplary model of Arts Ignite’s mission to empower young people. During their fellowship, ARKAI, a musical duo within CFC, performed a live concert for the NYSA students. ARKAI members, Jonathan Miron and Philip Sheegog, met at one of Arts Ignite’s previous conferences. 

“We’re so grateful for and inspired by the work that both Arts Ignite and CFC do – increasing access and putting the power of the arts into the hands of young people through programs like NYSA.”

-ARKAI

“Concerts for Compassion is honored to work with Arts Ignite — a model organization helping transcend barriers through the language of art and music — while furthering our mission of facilitating cross-cultural integration among displaced peoples and their local communities through music.

We had so much fun sharing an afternoon of musical inspiration with the NYSA youth through our cross-genre interactive performance. We were able to learn as much as we taught, and can’t wait to return in the future to expand our partnership with such an impactful organization as Arts Ignite!” 

Concerts for Compassion’s Co-founder, Jocelyn Zhu

You can watch a clip of the performance here.

The Newcomer Youth Summer Academy (NYSA) is a five-week summer camp that supports the personal growth, cultural adjustment, and education of 100-120 young people, ages 4-22. This program prepares newly arrived refugee youth for success at their grade level in the New York City public school system. We are thrilled to conduct NYSA in person after two years of remote learning due to the COVID-19 global health crisis. These meaningful face-to-face interactions create lifelong connections and foster a creative space where young people can thrive. 

The Jennifer Saltzstein Kaffenberger Fellowship is an opportunity for those who model Jennifer’s passion for using the arts to celebrate a young person’s strength and build up their unique areas for growth. With this fellowship, we honor Jennifer’s legacy by celebrating Concerts for Compassion’s commitment to using the arts to transform lives.