A sound program for city children

When Marin Alsop began her tenure as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last year, she put a high priority on developing educational projects that could bring together the institution and the ...

[Sharon]

Marin Alsop deserves a lot of credit. She is taking the BSO to places it has never been before. And what a great mission. It's about time someone in the community reaches out to the underprivileged and present them with an activity that will keep them off the streets, give them great self-esteem and who will later in life do the same for others

God Bless you Marin.

[Susan Hammond]

Bravo! There is hope the next generation will not be culturally illiterate due to No Child Left Behind. Thank you.

[Ang]

Sharon wrote:

God Bless you Marin.

Agreed. What a great person she is.

[TJB]

The real danger with these types of programs is they often supplant the responsiblity of the local school system to provide comprehensive and adequate music education. So far, Baltimore's schools seem to be acting responsibly, leaving the BSO's program to be purely supplemental and truly extracurricular. The danger is the BSO might end up taking up the slack and giving Baltimore's Schools all the excuse to say, "we can cut funding because the BSO will make up the difference."
Remember, this program serves only a few kids at one school, whereas the school district has a much greater potential for wider outreach. More to the point, programs such as these are less efficient than funding arts education through a school district. The average American orchestra spends 18% of its budget on fundraising. To hold up the Columbian model is nonsense: those are state-funded youth orchestras. It's amazing to see what a difference a funding model will make to the heart of programs.
In many cities throughout the country, education progams are actually jobs programs for orchestra staff (since education grants match a proportion of such things as staff time, office space, etc. they in effect subsidize general operating expenses). The BSO has taken on a difficult task to prove this is not the case.
Baltimore Residents should be heartened that they have a truly world-class arts institution in their midst, but they also have a repsonsibility to lobby arts education priorities with the school board.