There is a whole lot more to our after school music program than notes and noise, music learned and played together is a tool. Orchestra, choir, and small groups effectively act as a model society, where competition between individuals is replaced with shared struggle. As Jose Antonio Abreu states, “the orchestra is the only group that comes together with the sole purpose of agreement.”
In our immersive after school program, collaborative music-making refines social skills and teaches the value of a shared triumph. Bringing children together with the intention of creating something together, without the limitations of winning and losing, can be transformative.
Our after school program is modelled after the Venezuela based El Sistema movement, founded by the late Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, who believed that if we “teach children the beauty of music, music will teach them the beauty of life.”