Starling Creative Arts to be featured in
march 2017 Huffington Post article:
director Ali Rapetti shares her decision to pursue music therapy after an eclectic music career and recounts memorable stories of witnessing the miracle of music firsthand
2/10/16
starling's Ali rapetti Recounts music therapy stories for musictherapytales.org
Therapeutic Work Nationally Recognized:
4/17/11
Starling's Ali rapetti, featured American representative for Women of the World (Carnegie Hall, BlueNote, national tours)
12/21/02
Starling's Alison Grace
featured in Rolling Stone Magazine and on NPR for her ukulele version of Beck's 'Old Shanghai'
Starling's Ali Rapetti
Co-founder of International Non-Profit
'Arts Educational International:'
Created along with Sacramento State Ethnomusicologist, Sarah Lappas a non-profit organization building arts programs in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Trinidad. Our non-profit, Arts Education International worked with children in orphanages- children who had been in abandoned, in wars, some who had seen unthinkable things. Our program connected these children with artists within their own communities to give them a chance to be just be kids as well as express themselves in a safe, creative environment. Music was evidently the most stealth yet safe vehicle to heal, help, and connect. It brought joy to these youthful yet too mature faces, it made feet move and stomp and be motivated to dance when otherwise shuffling around or at rest. It enhanced a sense community, while reinforcing the coolness, novelty, and beauty of the kids’ own culture. Perhaps most salient to me, music seemed to gently crack open even the toughest exteriors and allow for something new, healthy, and light to enter in.
*Update: After eight years of semi-annual international camps, each is now individually run which was our initial goal, and we still have a home for Arts Educational International projects in San Francisco.
also featured on npr during beck interview
4/26/06