BC Music Conservatory to Train Elementary School Students in New CUNY Program

CUNY has launched an after-school music education program in which current students and recent graduates of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music will train second and third-graders in instrumental music.

Modeled after the world-famous El Sistema program in Venezuela, the Harmony program has trained a group of seven students and alumni of the Conservatory who will, in turn, be training 43 students at Public School 152 in Brooklyn. The music teachers – all students or alumni of the College’s music education and music performance programs – will work with the elementary school students every day after school through June.

"We simultaneously want to train a new generation of music teachers as well as introduce music to a new generation of students who probably would never have been exposed to music in this way," said Anne Fitzgibbon, director of operations for CUNY and deputy to the senior university dean for academic affairs and the dean of the School of Professional Studies.

Fitzgibbon actually launched an early version of the program five years ago when she worked in New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s office. When she left that job, she incorporated the program as a non-profit organization. Then last year, she took an extended trip to Venezuela on a Fulbright grant and studied the country’s renowned music education model called the National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras (or "El Sistema"). The program – with its social mission to transform the lives of low-income, "at-risk," and special needs youth – has inspired nearly two dozen other countries to launch similar efforts.

"Many of the children they are reaching are children who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds," explains Fitzgibbon. "Music is so much more than just learning to play an instrument. It can change a child’s life. It teaches them to communicate with each other, to cooperate and to express their own individual creative voices."

The seven Conservatory students and alumni, who were selected because they are all passionate about teaching, will train children in the violin, cello, flute, trumpet, trombone and percussion. The children are provided with musical instruments, books and supplies and also will have an opportunity to participate in concerts, lectures and other activities at Carnegie Hall and the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

The program – in which the New York City Department of Education is a partner – has received funding from The Independence Community Foundation, The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, The Bernstein Family Foundation, City Councilman Kendall Stewart and CUNY.

Fitzgibbon said that if it is successful, the program could be duplicated at other CUNY institutions. "There are so many strong music programs within the CUNY system," she said, "and so many nearby schools that could benefit."