Leadership Team

Aisha Bowden

Acting Executive Director & Co-Founder/Director of AMPlify

Sistema Fellows ’12

Aisha Bowden is the Co-Founder and Director of AMPlify, the Choral Program of the Atlanta Music Project. In this role, she overseas all AMPlify operations and directs the AMPlify Choir. In addition she holds strategic and administrative responsibilities for the AMP.

Aisha completed the Sistema Fellows program in 2012, a prestigious, post-graduate fellowship of New England Conservatory that trains gifted musicians and educators to lead El Sistema-inspired programs in the United States.

Prior to the fellowship, Aisha enjoyed a career as an award-winning public school music educator for eleven years.  As Chair of the Music Department at Thomson Elementary School in Washington, DC , Ms. Bowden provided General and Vocal Music Instruction to the full student body, directed the Thomson Choir and managed several partnerships with leading arts organizations, to include the Washington National Opera and The Choral Arts Society of Washington, DC.

Her performance background, which includes travel to Switzerland, Germany and Gabon, Africa, inspired Ms. Bowden to organize frequent performance opportunities for her students, designed to broaden their exposure to and understanding of the world around them. Under her direction, the Thomson Choir performed for the King and Queen of Norway, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and the Bicentennial Celebration of Abraham Lincoln at which President Obama was the keynote speaker. The Thomson choir has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN and Good Morning America as well as local television networks. During her tenure in the DC Public School system, Ms. Bowden also served as accompanist for the All-City Honors Chorus and a General Music Curriculum Writer for the DCPS Division of Music. Additionally, Ms. Bowden has been recognized for excellence in arts education by the Arts for Every Student Program, Who’s Who in American Educators and the Mayors Arts Awards. She is also featured in the April 2012 issue of Teaching Music, a publication of the National Association for Music Education.

After relocating from Washington,DC to Georgia in 2009, Ms. Bowden conducted middle school choirs with Cobb County Public Schools and worked as a Choral Teaching Artist for the pilot year of the Atlanta Music Project (AMP). That experience with AMP influenced her decision to enroll in the 2011-2012 Sistema Fellows Program and subsequently create the first Sistema-inspired choral program in Georgia. Aisha brings expertise in choral directing, public school education, community programming and non-profit management.