After-school music lessons might not someday turn kids into Joshua Bell or Hilary Hahn. But learning to play the violin could very well get them into college—and A Gift for Music, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, considers that to be just as much of a win.
A Gift for Music is the flagship arts-education program of A Gift for Teaching, a nonprofit that provides free school supplies for teachers in Orange and Osceola counties.
The mission is to ensure that all students, their socioeconomic status notwithstanding, have access to top-notch, tuition-free musical instruction. Since its inception in 1999, more than 10,000 youngsters have learned to play stringed instruments through the program.
“Playing the violin isn’t an easy skill to learn,” says Chad McClellan, director of A Gift for Music who also founded a popular a capella group, Sounds Like a Chicken. “But if a student can learn to do that, then he or she will be able to do better at everything.”
Including academics. Since 2012, every student who has remained in the program from third to 12th grade has graduated from high school and continued on to college. Actual fiddling, it seems, is a far greater indicator of success in life than just fiddling around.
That was certainly true of Angelica Chen, who started violin lessons through the program as a timid third-grader at Orlo Vista Elementary. Today she’s a pharmacist at AdventHealth Winter Garden. “You learn so many life skills,” she says. “You learn discipline, problem-solving, teamwork, time management and so much more.”
Chen not only stuck with the program through high school, she even offered to come back and work as an instructor while she was a student at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy at Lake Nona. She recalls how meaningful it was to have been presented with a violin—something her family couldn’t have otherwise afforded—as a youngster.
“I got to take home a violin the first day I joined,” she recalls, still marveling at the memory. “A Gift for Music was such an important part of my life from then on. In addition to everything else, it gave me confidence in myself.”
A student’s journey may begin, as Chen’s did, with free after-school violin lessons, which are offered to third- through fifth-graders at five Title 1 elementary schools throughout Orange County. (About 90 percent of A Gift for Music’s students qualify for free or reduced lunches at their schools.)
From there, budding musicians can move on to one of five Saturday Strings Orchestra ensembles, take one-on-one lessons with a dedicated instructor and attend weeklong summer camps that are jam-packed with rehearsals, music theory lessons, aural (hearing) training and more. There are also many opportunities for students of all ages, as they become more proficient, to perform at concerts and special gatherings.
Two key partnerships are crucial to A Gift for Music: Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the UCF College of Arts and Humanities. OPO musicians conduct residencies twice annually with participating students, who as an additional perk are invited to attend the orchestra’s open dress rehearsals.
Most instructors are talented UCF undergraduates. “A Gift for Music is like a living laboratory for our music education students,” says Jeff Moore, a percussion professor and dean of the College of Arts and Humanities—which is one of the sponsors for the can’t-miss 25th anniversary event for the program.
Nocturne: Celebrating 25 Years of A Gift for Music, will be held on Thursday, May 22, at the Rice Family Pavilion at Rollins College. About 100 musicians, including many alumni, will perform Ludwig von Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and an original composition, Jubilee, written for A Gift for Music by Los Angeles-based composer David Asher Brown.
There’ll even be a choir, says McClellan, who studied conducting and classical voice at Rollins College and is active in an array of music-focused organizations, leads several vocal ensembles and is director of choir and handbells at Merritt Island Presbyterian Church.
Showtime for the ticketed event—a fundraiser—will be 6 p.m. The college is located at 1000 Holt Avenue, Winter Park. A Gift for Music is located at 6501 Magic Way, No. 400C, Orlando. For more information, visit agiftformusic.org or call 407.318.3123.
A Gift for Music students can participate in one of five Saturday Strings Orchestra ensembles, take one-on-one lessons with a dedicated instructor and attend weeklong summer camps that are jam-packed with rehearsals, music theory lessons, aural (hearing) training and more. There are also many opportunities for students of all ages, as they become more proficient, to perform at concerts and special gatherings. | Courtesy A Gift for Music
