Youth Programs
Our youth programs give elementary students weekly music education, mentorship, and a creative community, at no cost. Every site includes Creative Expressions, a class led by a board-certified music therapist, along with group instruction on an instrument. Students write and perform their own work, and beginning this fall they will record it using our mobile production studio.
We work inside existing schools and community programs rather than asking families to come to us. We track three things: academic performance, behavior, and musical growth. Attendance is part of that picture, since students attend our program on the days they attend school. Last year sixteen students stayed with us the full school year, four with perfect attendance and six more close to it.
College students from our university partners work alongside our teaching artists as interns and work-study staff, which strengthens the program and gives the next generation of educators real experience in the classroom.
Goals
ACADEMIC. Students attend our program on the days they attend school, so showing up here supports showing up there. We track grades and attendance alongside musical progress.
BEHAVIORAL. Weekly music-making builds habits that carry into a classroom: arriving on time, working with others, staying with something difficult.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE. Students get real instruction, real instruments, and real audiences — writing, performing, and beginning this fall, recording their own work.