“Over the past year, there has been so much public attention focused on the unmet needs and lack of options for Baltimore’s youth, and rightly so,” writes Fred Bronstein, dean of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, in Friday’s (7/15) Baltimore Sun. “As our city and community look to find and craft … solutions, the impact of music programs demonstrates the difference that music and the arts can make in the lives of young people.” Bronstein cites Nyshae Cheatham, a 14-year-old saxophonist who will “attend Summer Arts Camp at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan…. Nyshae’s path to Interlochen began in a Baltimore City Public Schools music program, then on to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids, followed by entrance into the Peabody Preparatory’s [tuition-free] Tuned-In program…. This fall she will enroll at the Baltimore School for the Arts. These and other complementary programs together comprise a pipeline of arts education in Baltimore that is creating a musical pathway for city schoolkids…. The academic results are equally impressive. … It’s a matter of access, and while we can’t change it for the world, we can change it right here in Baltimore.”
Posted July 19, 2016
