“The Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation, a major force in Baltimore’s philanthropic community, has pledged a $500,000 challenge grant to raise support from the African-American community for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program,” writes Tim Smith in Saturday’s (1/30) Baltimore Sun. “That music education program, launched with seed money from BSO music director Marin Alsop, began in 2008 [and] now serves more than 1,000 pre-K through 10th-grade students at schools in disadvantaged areas of East and West Baltimore.… The Brown Family Foundation will match contributions, dollar-for-dollar, up to $500,000, from the African-American community over the next five years.… Groundwork on the matching grant started a year ago, BSO vice president of development Jamie Kelley said. ‘As people got wind of it,’ Kelley said, ‘they told us, “If the Browns are behind it, I’ll give it a second look.” ’ … Five OrchKids students were admitted to the Baltimore School for the Arts, one plays in the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra and 10 were accepted last summer into the widely respected Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.” Said Alsop, “We set the bar very high…. And when I hear them play and talk about their dreams, I feel hopeful.”
Posted February 1, 2016
