“An international music program is making its way to Oklahoma City and will open its doors next month,” writes Heather Hope on Friday (8/16) at News9.com (Oklahoma City). “The program is called El Sistema Oklahoma. It will give 116 elementary school students in Oklahoma City Public Schools a top-notch education in classical music…. Business owners [chairperson Cathy Busey] and Phil Busey are sponsoring El Sistema Oklahoma, an afterschool music program housed on the third floor of Trinity Baptist Church on NW 23rd St.… The project has been the Busey family’s brainchild for a year.… Third- through sixth-grade students from six schools nearby the church will make up the orchestra. The elementary schools involved are: Sequoyah, Putnam Heights, Cleveland, Linwood, Gatewood and Kaiser. ‘Those schools identified are schools that have the majority of their children on the free and reduced lunch program. So they are children who might not have the opportunity to have music lessons or the opportunity to have an activity afterschool,’ Cathy Busey said.” A separate article in Tuesday’s (8/20) Leader-Post (Regina, Canada) chronicles the progress of an El Sistema program launched last October at the Vincent Massey School in Saskatoon; the latter program is expanding from one day a week to twice a week this fall.
Posted August 20, 2013
