Music education paves the way to student success.
In 2014, when Scuola Nuova Vita Charter School raised enough money to move into its own building down the street, Northeast Community Center Executive Director Laura Shulz had a problem.
“What am I going to do with all this space now?” she recalls thinking.
Then she discovered Harmony Project.
Founded in 2001 in Los Angeles, Harmony Project is designed to provide instruments and tuition-free music instruction to children in underserved neighborhoods. It has been so successful that there are now affiliates in New Orleans, Miami, Tulsa, Phoenix, East St. Louis and San Francisco. Harmony Project LA recently graduated its first class; 100 percent of those students were accepted to college: more than 33 percent are pursuing degrees and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields and there are two Fulbright scholars. All in an area with high school dropout rates of over 50 percent.
The demonstrated success of the program appealed to Shulz.
“I wanted to create a program that could keep the neighborhood involved and give opportunities to the children,” she says. “I had seen the research about music education and what it does for children living in poverty. When I saw the program in LA, I was sold. I came back to Kansas City and started raising money to start an affiliate here. But I didn’t have someone to lead the program.”
Enter Carmen Espinosa.
Originally from Peru, Espinosa holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s degree in piano performance from Indiana University. She taught music at the university level in Peru for seven years and then went to Harvard to study International Education Policy. That’s where she met Margaret Martin, the founder of Harmony Project.
Martin emerged from her conversation with Espinosa and called Shulz.
“I think I’ve found your person,” Shulz recalls Martin saying with excitement.
Espinosa moved to Kansas City in September 2014 and Harmony Project KC classes started in January 2015.
At the Truman Forum at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library last December, a conference room was packed to the gills with kids, all dressed in black pants and black Harmony Project T-shirts.
“Remember, play your best! Be your best! And if you mess up, it’s OK! Smile and keep going!” a teacher counseled.
Instrument cases were lined up in the hallway outside the room. The excitement, joy and pride coming from the makeshift green room was palpable.
The auditorium was abuzz with parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and donors. After some brief announcements by Shulz and Espinosa, the first group of student musicians took to the stage.
Harmony Project KC starts all students with four months of musicianship classes designed to teach the fundamentals of music. Then students move on to ensembles—in Kansas City, either choir or orchestra. There are five total hours of music instruction each week on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and Saturday mornings. But to the kids, it feels as much like fun as learning.
“My favorite part about Harmony Project is that I get to learn new things and I learn how to play boomwhackers,” a seven-year-old student says.
The Northeast Community Center has long been involved with programming to serve the changing neighborhood. It began in 1908 as the Italian Mission, with a kindergarten and nursery school, scouting troops, youth sports leagues, language courses, adult literacy classes and a free clinic. It became the Northeast Community Center in 1941 and in 1999, Scuola Vita Nuova Charter School opened in the space. Then, in 2014, SVN relocated to the former Don Bosco charter high school on Garfield Avenue.
And Harmony Project KC moved in.
“As community outreach, music education is special and effective,” Espinosa says. “Research says that two years of music education makes a significant, positive difference in brain structure. And that difference lasts a lifetime. Imagine more than two years! Having access to music gives these kids a path they might not have found without music. And the tools to follow that path.”
Back at the Truman Forum, the stage is being set up for the string orchestra.
“What’s that?” whispers a young voice.
“What?” a patient adult whispers back.
“That! That black square thing on a stick.”
“That’s a music stand. It holds the music.”
“But you can’t hold music. Music is everywhere!”
Thanks to Harmony Project KC, that is true in Northeast Kansas City.
Above photo: Conductor Selene Hernandez conducted a Harmony Project KC concert at the Truman Forum Auditorium of the Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch last December. The performers are (from left): violinists Kalista Knight, Arely Quiñones and Juan Arturo Tovar (behind Quiñones). At the piano is Carmen Espinosa beside Manuel Chavez (center). Continuing around the circle are violinists Kevin Torres and Emily Lopez, violist Catherine Bañuelos and cellist Jocelyn Alvarado. Photo by Dan White, 2015.
