ONE Strings: a free program for Burlington kids
“This is the most rewarding musical project in my life; I imagine that ONE Strings will have potent long-term ramifications for those students’ lives.”
“Music is immensely important in the awakening of sensibility, in the forging of values and in the training of youngsters to teach others.”
Our ONE Strings program provides free violin instruction at the HO Wheeler School, the state's most diverse and financially disadvantaged school. The school has up to 285 students from 23 countries, speaking 30 languages, and it houses the district STEP program for newcomers. They are a Title 1 school where more than 50% of the students qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch. ONE (Old North End) Strings provides in-school strings instruction and related activities for students at the school, seeking to eliminate traditional barriers to instrument instruction. The program is inspired by El Sistema, a worldwide educational movement that has been called “the future of music.”
In a typical year, All 3rd graders have a 6-week introduction to strings in the spring. Then in 4th and 5th grade, students at HO Wheeler have group violin lessons twice a week for 20 weeks with violin teachers Kathleen Kono and Rachel Keyser. Soovin Kim, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival's Co-Artistic Director, often visits the school, and our Resident Ensemble and participants in our Young Composer Seminar also make frequent classroom visits. This program has been made possible thanks to a series of grants from the Vermont Community Foundation and the Amy B. Tarrant Foundation and the support of private donors and the school’s PTO.
The Role of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival
The staff and board of the Festival are deeply committed to ONE Strings as a key part of our mission to inspire a passion for chamber music by encouraging and providing educational programs for schoolchildren.
As a parting gift to Executive Director Jody Woos on her retirement in 2021, the LCCMF board created an endowment to ensure the continued funding of the ONE Strings program. This endowment reflects Jody’s commitment to this wonderful program.
Thank you!
Many thanks to the Vermont Community Foundation, the Landmann Family Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation, Valerie Graham, Jody Kebabian, the school’s PTO, and our generous donors for helping to make this project possible. Thanks to Kathy Reilly and Vermont Violins for instrument rentals and to the PTO at IAA for a grant to pay for the rentals.