Press Releases

Press Releases

Please click on the headings below to read Musicopia’s most recent press releases.

For more information about Musicopia, please visit the About Us section. Please click here to download a PDF version of Musicopia's press kit.

09/29/2009 - Musicopia String Programs Serve Philadelphia Youth

 

Musicopia String Programs Serve Philadelphia Youth 
Community string program is having a positive effect on underserved kids
By Caeli Smith
It’s 5:30 PM on a dreary Tuesday in late winter. While most fifth graders are home chilling out with videogames or a little geography homework, Lisandra, Will, Tatianna, and Nina are racing up three long flights of stairs inside cavernous St. Patrick’s Hall near Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. Without any prompting, they unsnap their cases, tighten their bows, and get down to business solving the problem of how to play an F# accidental in the third violin part of Richard Meyer’s “Incantations.”
“Great job, guys!” coach and violist Madeline Smith says. “You all held down your fingers and the string crossings sounded a lot cleaner.” The youngest members of the Musicopia String Orchestra nod at her and grin. They’d followed Smith’s instructions from the week before, practicing difficult measures at home for “five minutes every day,” and their efforts have paid off.
The string orchestra is just one of the many community-based programs sponsored by Musicopia, a 35-year-old Philadelphia-based nonprofit that works with musicians throughout the region to provide assemblies, workshops, and long-term residencies for public schools and other underserved communities.
Sixty-five percent of the youth served comes from low-income families. In recent years, the program has been assisted by support from violinist Mark O’Connor and singer Barbra Streisand, among others.
“We go through the hardest spots and might spend an hour working on a few difficult measures,” Smith says later. “Surprisingly, it’s not as hard to keep their attention as I thought it would be. Even after a long day at school, they are so focused. They actually want to learn so they can play better in the orchestra with the older kids.”
This is just one of six small sectional rehearsals taking place simultaneously throughout the building, in administrative offices, storage rooms, and even a tiny kitchen. Next door, the cello section is riffing on Vivaldi.
Downstairs, the violas are playing scales in unison. The building rings with music.
Classical and Alt-styles Taught
Now in its fourth season, the Musicopia String Orchestra is composed of eight- to 15-year-olds and boasts a five-to-one student-teacher ratio with a faculty of four professional string teachers, two volunteer interns (Smith, who is my older sister, and I), and an administrative manager. Daniela Giulia Pierson, the artistic coordinator and conductor of the orchestra, explains that Musicopia builds on the music lessons that schools provide the children, including instruments.
Imani Bey, a 12-year-old cellist enrolled in the program, is happy to find kids on the same wavelength. “My friends at school don’t really play,” Bey says, “and it’s really good to know that other kids my age like music as much as I do.”
During the two and half hours of weekly instruction, teachers cover a variety of skills, including scales, sight-reading, and even non-classical Latin and jazz styles.
“This is good music for us to play,” says 12-year-old violinist Atamosi Hagins, who joined the orchestra with his twin, Atamanu, a violist, two years ago.
“It’s a good combination of easier and harder stuff, which challenges me in a good way. I’m trying to get better, so I can be in a full orchestra when I grow up, and all the sectionals we do help us learn our parts better so we fit together with the whole orchestra.”
Sheena Lester, Atamosi and Atamanu’s mom, is happy to see their progress. “My sons love the orchestra,” Lester says. “They enjoy everything about the process—getting a new song, learning it, practicing with the other kids, performing it for an audience, and the feeling of accomplishment that goes along with that.”
Connecting with Public Schools
As part of its mission, Musicopia maintains a strong relationship with public-school music teachers, who are continually sending Pierson names and phone numbers of interested students. Pierson and her staff go into schools to audition students and, when necessary, they help facilitate their transportation to the Tuesday evening rehearsals.
Nina Wilkinson, a Musicopia viola teacher, drives several of students home after rehearsal each week. “We do everything we can to make this opportunity feasible for families,” Pierson says. “We keep the tuition very low and offer financial aid to families who need it. No one is turned away.”
Back at St. Patrick’s Hall later in the evening, there’s a short recess while the youngest members take their places at the back of the third violin section. Rather than chat, or check their text-messages, the orchestra launches—from memory—into a spontaneous rendition of last semester’s Telemann Concerto for Four Violins while the coaches look on in amusement.
When rehearsal resumes, Smith stands behind her beginners, helping them by counting rhythms aloud and pointing to their places on the printed score if they get lost. A few feet away, in the viola section, Wilkinson sings the pitches to support a player who is feeling momentarily insecure. The other coaches and I play along, to back up our sections.

09/01/2009 - Musicopia Builds Music in the Schools

 

Did you know studies show that about 60% of students in urban schools become disengaged in 5th & 6th grades and are identified as unlikely to graduate? These students begin to fail, eventually developing poor attendance record and behavior problems. As students lose their sense of connection to school, they act out increasingly, which ultimately puts their own futures in jeopardy.  Music education has shown however, to have a positive effect on children’s emotional and intellectual growth and improves basic math and reading skills.

06/01/2008 - Musicopia Brings a Community Partnership Music Project to the Rose Tree-Media School District: Auricolae to present the WORLD PREMIERE of a composition by Kile Smith

Thanks to generous funding from the American Composers Forum and a PA Dept of Community and Economic Development grant secured with the help of Representative Thomas Killion, Auricolae will perform Mr. Smith’s new setting of The Bremen Town Musicians on June 9, 2008, at Media Elementary School and June 12, 2008, at Glenwood Elementary School. Mr. Smith, the composer, will participate in the performances.

04/04/2007 - APPALACHIA WALTZ TRIO JOINS MUSICOPIA ROSTER ARTIST JOHN BLAKE, JR. FOR EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOP AND PERFORMANCE

Musicopia, formerly known as Strings for Schools, announces an innovative collaboration between the Appalachia Waltz Trio featuring virtuoso fiddler Mark O’Connor and an ensemble led by jazz violinist John Blake, Jr. Organized by Musicopia, Fiddlin’ Jazz workshop with All-City Middle School Chamber Orchestra and Band on May 10 is followed by a public concert at the Independence Seaport Museum on May 12, 2007

02/07/2007 - BARBRA STREISAND AND SONY/BMG CONTRIBUTE $20,000 TO MUSICOPIA

The Streisand Foundation is donating $10,000 to Musicopia, a non-profit organization that brings educational music enrichment programs to schools and communities throughout the Greater Philadelphia area.

02/06/2007 - MUSICOPIA HOSTS ANNUAL FUNDRAISING GALA ON FEBRUARY 24 AT PHILADELPHIA COUNTRY CLUB

Event honors Welthie and Walter Fitzgerald of Wayne, PA for their tireless efforts to preserve music education in public schools, February 2007.