Professional Biography

Micah Hendler (Forbes 30 Under 30 for Music) is a musical changemaker working to harness the power in each of our voices to make a difference.

Micah is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, an Israeli-Palestinian music and dialogue project featured for its innovative musicianship and integrity of purpose and process from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to the New York Times. Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, the chorus empowers young singers from East and West Jerusalem to speak and sing their truths as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to join them in their work for peace, justice, inclusion, and equality.

In addition to his ongoing bridge-building work in Jerusalem, Micah has brought some of his JYC experience back home and serves as a Co-Director of Music for Braver Angels, America’s largest grassroots movement working on political depolarization.  Braver Angels offers Americans of all political leanings and walks of life a way to disagree accurately—and potentially, in the process, find a piece of common ground, or at least common humanity, with one another.  Music is a powerful access point for Americans to engage with one another differently, and through community singing, collaborative songwriting, and building a movement of musicians who can sing out strongly in a way that can still be heard across difference, Micah is working to build bridges in the US as well.

Micah has a degree in Music and International Studies from Yale and brings decades of musical experience from different global traditions to this work: he has founded, directed, sung with, or played with dozens of musical ensembles of varying styles, including the Yale Whiffenpoofs, and has studied Community Singing and CircleSinging with GRAMMY-winning composers Ysaye Barnwell and Roger Treece, using these techniques to open up the concept of who is allowed to sing.  He has also been involved in dialogue work for nearly 20 years and has written and presented in many local and global forums about his work with the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, including sharing the keynote presentation of the East-West Philosophers’ Conference with leading Palestinian intellectual and peacemaker Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, as they explored together how sound can be used as a tool to create shared spaces in Jerusalem.

During the pandemic, Micah co-founded Raise Your Voice Labs, a creative culture change company that helps organizations, companies, and communities realign and reengage around a shared vision and build cultures of resilience, adaptability, inclusive leadership, and supportive accountability.  In this time of profound change, Raise Your Voice Labs has helped dozens of groups rediscover themselves, reconnect to one another, and find their musical North Star.

Micah writes for Forbes.com on music, society, and social change in a global context, using this platform to uplift marginalized voices that are not often heard in mainstream media.  He currently lives in Washington, DC.