In New Jersey, the Trenton Music Makers afterschool music program is beginning its second year by expanding the program with the addition of a middle school to its existing program at Grant Elementary School. The Grace A. Dunn Middle School in Trenton’s South Ward opens on October 3 with its first group of 25 students on violin, viola, cello, and bass. The Grant Elementary School site has 70 participating students this year, up from 45 students last year. Faculty for the program come from a range of music backgrounds, including the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Orchestra, the Berklee College of Music, and the Philadelphia String Project. Program Director Ronnie Ragen explains that Trenton Music Makers’ middle-school site was added so that last year’s elementary students who are now past fifth grade “know we are there for them to continue developing their music skills, and as a social community, through high school. We don’t let them age out.”
Posted October 3, 2016
