Tucked in the Music Apprenticeship area of the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival sat a smaller nook, full of cozy rugs, couches, and… a makeshift recording studio. No one could predict exactly what would emerge from the tent of the New Sounds Lab. But Brandon Yangmi, the lead engineer facilitating the space, aimed “to capture the different musical groups that were going to be at the Festival and to find interesting collaborations.”

The New Sounds Lab was conceptualized and adapted by the staff and students of Rebel Song Academy (RSA). Based in Kansas City, RSA mentors artists ages eleven to eighteen in creative songwriting and music production with special emphasis on mental health and self-development, in order to empower the next generation of songwriters. The RSA delegation at the Festival included founder and executive director Enrique Chi, program director Brandon Yangmi, operations manager Gabrielle Stanley, mentor Justin Fowler, alum and leader Malek Azrael, and students Alejandro Arias and Charles Fisher.

The New Sounds Lab’s contributors included invited artists and fellow Festival participants from Hawai‘i, Bolivia, the Northern Mariana Islands, Stax Music Academy, the Alliance of Black Orchestral Percussionists (ABOP), the Cultural Academy for Excellence’s Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra, RSA musicians, Festival staff and interns, and visitors from around the world.

“They had never done something like that before,” Yangmi said about the group from the Northern Marianas. Their recording session began with the group singing and playing traditional music on ukuleles. Before long, they had piqued the interest of ABOP percussionists nearby, as well as members of Positive Vibrations. Cliff Murphy, director of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, also stopped in his tracks while walking past the tent before jumping in with his own guitar skills. The song also included interns and visitors. Ultimately, the collaborations that took place in the song thoroughly embodied the goals of the New Sounds Lab.

Rebel Song Academy student Charles Fisher plays the keys for a New Sounds Lab recording session.

Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

RSA student Alejandro Arias lays down the bass.

Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Brandon Yangmi prepares to add a drum track.

Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Cliff Murphy, director of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage—also guitarist of the alternative country band Say ZuZu since the 1990s—joins the recording fun.

Photo by Cassie Roshu, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

“Recording with and watching musicians and non-musicians all collaborate in one place is the most fun I’ve ever had,” recounts William Diaz-Contreras, Festival intern and musician.

But in the end, groovy, innovative tracks were only a portion of the products. The New Sounds Lab cultivated an atmosphere in which teachers learned from students, skilled improvisation remained relaxed, and intercultural collaborations occurred constantly.

“People go off on their own islands and worlds, but there’s a lot of similar rhythms around the world,” Yangmi shared after the Festival. “The Mariana Islands participants were playing a drum beat that Enrique jumped on because he listened to similar-sounding stuff in Panama. It’s cool to see cultures meld together to make one thing… to see the breaking down of barriers and bringing different backgrounds together.”

Below are five mixed tracks of the New Sounds Lab, recorded at the Festival and produced by Rebel Song Academy. Read the audio transcripts of the songs.

The Northern Marianas singers anchor this track with repeated words in Chamorro and Carolinian, Indigenous languages of the Mariana Islands. It’s a popular contemporary song that describes the “nostalgia that locals feel for the Mariana Islands and the happiness experienced when returning to them after being away,” shared leader Leo Pangelinan.

The singers’ beautiful harmonies attracted an enormous amount of nearby ears and prompted many collaborators. The Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra joined in just after their workshop wrapped up at the Beatworks tent next door. They were soon joined by ABOP’s London Reese Johnson and Folklife director Cliff Murphy.

Every day of the Festival, people could catch Andes MC (Carlos Andres Orellana Patiño) and his mentor Eber Miranda performing at the Wordsmiths’ Cafe. These Bolivia-based lyricists write and rap in Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish, highlighting the struggles of youth in their communities in La Paz and El Alto. Andes MC made his way to the lab and recorded fresh words, accompanied by Rebel Song musicians and the bass stylings of Festival program coordinator Pablo Molinero-Martinez.

This track features a collaboration between Ghanaian rapper Maqash, and Rebel Song Academy mentor Malek Azreal. Yangmi recounted that he and RSA student Charles Fisher were working on an awesome hip-hop beat with Fisher on keys, and “the rappers soon jumped on top of it.” Azreal’s vocal melodies serve as a colorful contrast to the voice of Maqash.

Every day of the Festival, the “Popcorn Songwriting Workshops” in the Music Room were full of excitement, laughter, and joy, as RSA artists led visitors and fellow participants in high-energy, ultra-immersive songwriting sessions. Beginning with brief but rich explanations of pop-style chord progressions, the workshops guided visitors through multiple steps of a songwriting process: choosing a style, picking chords, and writing lyrics. RSA artists made it all come alive right then and there, and sometimes multiple songs emerged from a single forty-five-minute session!

Yangmi selected this recording for the playlist as a permanent fixture of this unique, interactive songmaking experience—and an expressive reflection of the hot, hot weather on the National Mall in July.

This track features the seemingly inevitable collaboration between two powerful groups of Festival participants: RSA and Stax Music Academy, a Memphis-based program that trains young soul musicians in performance and skill development. The two academy groups created, performed, and recorded the song in total partnership.

Liv Berg is a program intern at the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the music, dance, and sports team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA.