On June 15, 2001, the Ross Institute hosted the world premiere performance of “Sonic Convergence: A Glimpse into the Global Classroom.” Part concert, part film and video, part art installation, Sonic Converg-ence, a three-continent, student, teacher and mentor collaboration, broke new educational and performance ground. Area residents, including community leaders and other local luminaries thrilled to the sounds of the student musicians of the InterSchool Symphonic Orchestras, conducted by the legendary Quincy Jones in an evening of unparalleled media andcultural integration.
In addition to working closely with teams of teachers from their schools, students were provided support and consultation from world-class mentor musicians, composers and technology specialists. In the Sonic Convergence 
project the traditional relationship of student and mentor was facilitated by emerging technology. Ross Institute Founder Courtney Ross Holst and Ross Institute Co-Chairman Anders Holst brought together teachers, mentors, composers and students from the Ross School; the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China and the Rytmus School in Stockholm, Sweden. Over a two-year period, thirty students representing the three schools delved into this multi-dimensional pilot project and explored the complexity and diversity of musical expression. Students created musical tokens and then themes stemming from their culture’s root music that they exchanged via electronic communication and by collaborating in workshops in China and Sweden. These themes became the basis for a musical composition that reflects the combined efforts of its young composers to project their hopes for the future into a collaborative artistic expression of the Sonic Convergence. Using the universal language of music, and the Internet as a bridge, Sonic Convergence took students and then their audience on a cross-cultural and inter-continental journey into the new architecture of the global classroom. It serves as a model to inspire other schools and institutions to pursue endeavors that create bonds between students from different parts of the world who share a common passion and interest. 
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