ABOUT MBAW

Mission, Vision, & Values

Musical Bridges Around the World (also known as “MBAW”) is a registered 501(c)(3) multicultural arts and social impact nonprofit organization based in San Antonio, TX, USA with the mission is to celebrate our shared humanity by providing access to global arts for all. Our vision is a world where fine arts are accessible to all, our common humanity is recognized, cultural diversity is celebrated, and all are united in peace.

We hold three core values as an organization: Excellence, Equity, & Inspiration.

Programs

MBAW’s programs provide free access to high-quality global performing and visual arts, with a clear focus on cross-cultural collaboration and bringing music and cultural understanding to the community. This includes a seasonal concert series at the San Fernando Cathedral in the heart of downtown San Antonio (Russell Hill Rogers Musical Evenings at San Fernando Cathedral), an annual music festival (UNITYFest), a quadrennial international piano competition (The Gurwitz), an office doubling as a visual art gallery (MBAW Art Gallery), an educational concert & curriculum program (Musical Sprouts), a music scholarship for bowed string students (Colburn-Pledge Music Scholarship), a music ambassador program (Youth Ambassadors), a program taking concerts to seniors in living communities (Golden Age).

MBAW additionally has two paid membership concert series (Impresario Club and Music Viva!) where part of dues go to support the previously listed programs that are free to the community.

History of Musical Bridges Around the World

Musical Bridges Around the World was founded in 1998 in San Antonio, TX, USA by Russian-born concert pianist Anya Grokhovski, DMA, along with a group of music lovers to promote cultural understanding through innovative programming. Starting with only a chamber concert series, Anya and her team have slowly grown a wealth of programs to the nonprofit – a public concert series (1999), educational concert series (2001), senior concert series (2010), art gallery (2013), music festival (2014), educational curriculum (2016) international piano competition and youth ambassador program (2020), and string instrument scholarship (2021).