Found Sound Nation (FSN) is a collective of artists who use the collaborative power of music to build bridges that connect people across political, cultural and economic divides. We believe that engaging in music creation is an important way for creative leaders in civil societies to develop and inspire ideas for building more peaceful and harmonious societies. We’ve found that the art of listening extends far beyond the practice of making music; it’s one of the major ways we become aware of the beauty, trauma, and hidden potential present in our institutions, neighborhoods and families.
Over the years, FSN has partnered with music festivals in Zimbabwe, Switzerland, New York and Maine; designed collaborative projects in India, Haiti, Indonesia and New Orleans, and developed music composition and production workshops with incarcerated youth in the Bronx and Brooklyn. In 2012 we began a partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Bang on a Can to produce OneBeat, an international exchange and public diplomacy project. We see OneBeat are more than a music festival or cultural exchange; it’s an incubator for new forms of musical expression, a hatchery for novel ways to use music as a tool for the betterment of our communities, and an ever-growing web of interconnected artists and change-makers from around the globe. Founded in 2007 with Jeremy Thal, FSN began with single classroom-based studio in a struggling school in the Bronx.