In Saturday’s (1/25) Baltimore Sun, Mary Carole McCauley profiles Dan Trahey, the tuba player who “has helped make OrchKids—the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program that puts musical instruments into the hands of schoolchildren regardless of their ability—into a national model for teaching life skills to youngsters in impoverished neighborhoods. … For Trahey, OrchKids’ single most valuable lesson isn’t providing instruction in playing an instrument. It’s teaching kids how to be good citizens. ‘In my mind, an orchestra is the perfect metaphor for a functioning society,’ says Trahey, 35.… Already the oldest and largest of the more than six dozen programs of its kind in the U.S., OrchKids is about to become more influential. The BSO announced this month that philanthropists Robert Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker have pledged their second gift of $1 million, enabling OrchKids to expand from five city elementary schools serving 750 pupils to eight schools enrolling 1,600 by the 2018-2019 school year. OrchKids is the brainchild of the symphony’s music director, Marin Alsop. … ‘OrchKids has become a model program that people around the world want to know about,’ says Jesse Rosen, president of the New York-based League of American Orchestras…. ‘Dan brings his own vision to the work. He’s a zealot, a real crusader.’ ”
Posted January 27, 2014
