ONE Strings
“It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs
of hope and optimism.”
-Angela Davis
“This is the most rewarding musical project in my life; I imagine that ONE Strings will have potent long-term ramifications for those students’ lives.”
“Music is immensely important in the awakening of sensibility, in the forging of values and in the training of youngsters to teach others.”
Our ONE Strings program provides free violin instruction at the HO Wheeler School, the state's most diverse and financially disadvantaged school. The school has up to 285 students from 23 countries, speaking 30 languages, and it houses the district STEP program for newcomers. They are a Title 1 school where more than 50% of the students qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch. ONE (Old North End) Strings provides in-school strings instruction and related activities for students at the school, seeking to eliminate traditional barriers to instrument instruction. The program is inspired by El Sistema, a worldwide educational movement that has been called “the future of music.”
In a typical year, All 3rd graders have a 6-week introduction to strings in the spring. Then in 4th and 5th grade, students at HO Wheeler have group violin lessons twice a week for 20 weeks with violin teachers Kathleen Kono and Rachel Keyser. Soovin Kim, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival's Co-Artistic Director, often visits the school, and our Resident Ensemble and participants in our Young Composer Seminar also make frequent classroom visits.