The Baltimore Symphony's OrchKids
A Classical Music After-School Program Serving Disadvantaged Kids
Jan 5, 2009
Classical music is often paired with champagne glasses and glittering gowns. And though school music programs don't achieve the same glitz that a concert hall might, the sad truth is that music programs tend to congregate where the money is. If a struggling school has to choose between math and music, the arts programs are the first to be cut.
Yet the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra wants to change that disparity with a new program it announced last June, the OrchKids. This project reaches one of the least likely places to afford a music program, Baltimore's Harriet Tubman Elementary School.
According to OrchKids promotional literature, the music program takes place after school in order to "to effect social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Baltimore City's low-income neighborhoods."
The Venezuelan Classical Music Program, El Sistemo
The idea of using classical music to help disadvantaged children achieve a better quality of life is not new. The Venezuelan program El Sistemo has had great success in taking kids from the slums and training them in all the rigors of classical musicianship.
The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has traveled worldwide under its conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and hundreds of thousands of youth have benefited over the program's 30-year lifespan.
Taking its cue from El Sistemo, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has created a private, non-government sponsored version to reach the disadvantaged kids of Baltimore. The Harriet Tubman Elementary School is located in a depressed area of the city, and many of the students are homeless.
OrchKids: A Classical Music After-School Program Teaching Discipline, Respect and Order
Run by Baltimore Symphony's Dan Trahey (a tuba player), the program meets 3 days per week. The program started in September 2008 with approximately 25 first graders, and will add another class of first graders to the program each year. Students can stay in the program all the way through the fifth grade.
Marin Alsop, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's music director, also comes in to the school to share lessons, such as how to take care of an instrument. The program teaches the children respect for their instruments and the need for discipline and order.
And OrchKids seems to be off to a good start: kids are excited about learning to play instruments. They miss fewer days of school because, according to one teacher, they don't want to miss out on OrchKids.
Sources
WYPR segment on OrchKids. Dec. 18, 2008.
"Baltimore Orchestra Announces OrchKids." June 12, 2008. Huliq News.
"Baltimore Symphony Trains Disadvantaged Kids." Jan. 3, 2009. NPR Weekend Edition.
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