Mission

Guardians of Sound and its Hip Hop Orchestra enrich life and lives through music.

Who We Are

We are a creative performing ensemble composed of youth, young professional and established professional musicians. Hip Hop Orchestra centers its art with acoustic instrumentalists, human voices, conscious lyrics, and current music making technologies. We create, perform, teach, record, and share original music.

Guardians of Sound’s Hip Hop Orchestra aims to inspire and nurture the creative and intellectual curiosity of today’s youth through music. The orchestra is composed of instrumentalists, singers, emcees and rappers who work with a variety of music genres, including hip hop, rock, popular, classical, and jazz. This approach not only enriches modern music-making but also builds a stronger, younger, and more diverse audience for musicians. By integrating traditional acoustic instruments with modern technology, Hip Hop Orchestra provides a method for learning, creating, performing, recording, and sharing music that resonates with today’s tech-savvy generation. It’s a fantastic way to keep the essence of acoustic sound alive while embracing the evolution of music.

Board of Directors

Michael Chapman

Founding President & Director

Duquesne University School of Music Director of Classical Guitar Ensemble / Adjunct Professor Guitar

James A. Brown

Director of Youth Development, Homewood-Brushton YMCA; YMCA Lighthouse Project

Linda Addlespurger

Director , Hope Academy Of Music and The Arts

Launcelot I. Brown Ph.D.

Duquesne University School of Education, Department Chair, Educational Foundations and Leadership

Annabelle Clippinger

Director of PittArts, University of Pittsburgh

Taliya Allen

The Pittsburgh Foundation Associate for the Arts

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