KQED News Mind/Shift – Eric Westervelt
“Scores of orchestras across America do some kind of music-education outreach. But few of them are embedded in the life of a school three days a week. That’s what the Sound Minds program is doing. It was created in partnership with the California Symphony, a professional orchestra based in Walnut Creek, Calif., that plays in the Bay Area. The organization has musically adopted Downer Elementary, located in a predominantly lower-income city in the northeast part of the San Francisco Bay. The symphony pays for professional musician-educators to teach a focused curriculum throughout the year, from music fundamentals to individual and group cello and violin. So far it has paid off: Participants are testing higher in math and reading than students who aren’t in the program. But Sound Minds, its creators say, also promotes music’s intrinsic power to uplift, inspire and challenge.”(more)