Jessica Zweig

Clarinetist and educator, Jessica Zweig, believes that all children deserve the opportunity to benefit from the highest quality music education. As Program director at Play On Philly (POP), an intensive after-school music program for Philadelphia youth, Jessica is responsible for all aspects of programming including crafting engaging curriculum for over 250 K-12 students in Philadelphia and leading and training talented teaching artists in topics as far ranging as instrumental pedagogy and student-engagement to trauma-informed classroom approach and cultural competency.

Jessica is equally committed to teacher training within POP and across the country and serves as the founding Director of Programming for the Teaching Artist Training Institute, created to prepare a new generation of El Sistema-inspired educators.

Jessica formerly served as the Site director for Play on Philly at St. Francis de Sales School and Program Manager at Harmony Program in New York City. As a Board Member of El Sistema USA.

Jessica served as the chair of the 2018 Symposium focused on collective impact and racial equity and currently chairs the Membership and Engagement committee. As a trained, professional clarinetist, Jessica has performed extensively throughout the Washington, DC area as well as in Perigord, France and Vienna, Austria.

As the Founder and Artistic Director of All Points West chamber music collective, she collaborated with notable institutions such as the Woodrow Wilson House, the Sackler Gallery, the Atlas Performing Arts Center and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to create innovative classical music programming in unusual spaces.

As an educator, Jessica taught elementary school music at the Sheridan School (Washington, DC) and served as clarinet faculty at Suitland High School for the Performing Arts.

Jessica received her B.M. and M.M in Clarinet Performance from the University of Maryland, School of Music.