For nearly 100 years The Music School of Delaware has built community by bringing music to people of all ages, from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds and with different musical skills.
Three years ago, a new chapter was added to this wonderful legacy. The school launched the MELODY program — Music Enriching the Lives of Delaware Youth — a tuition-free after-school and summer program for children.
MELODY is inspired by El Sistema — a worldwide movement that uses an intensive music program to help kids reach their full potential.
The Music School’s MELODY program is its most recent and aggressive initiative to robustly live out its foundational commitment to inclusion and access, a tenet of the school’s original and enduring guiding principle that “music excellence is for everyone.”
Children go to their MELODY program’s location after school, four days a week, and stay until six o’clock. During the afternoon they receive music instruction in violin or cello and “bucket band,” where they learn world rhythms, chanting, singing and movement. They also get a healthy snack and help with homework. During the summer, MELODY has a similar program for several weeks.
Despite launching in the fall of 2020 during the pandemic, MELODY now serves nearly 30 children in two locations, thanks to two wonderful partners: the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, across from Mount Pleasant elementary, and the Trinity Episcopal Parish, in downtown Wilmington.
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At the end of the year, the children give a performance at The Music School of Delaware’s acoustically excellent, 300-seat concert hall, showing off the skills they’ve developed over the preceding months.
MELODY’s aim is for the kids to stay in this program through the end of high school. So far, so good as student retention during the first three years has been almost 100%.
MELODY’s goal is not to turn kids into professional musicians, but to use the power of music to enable kids to develop the appropriate skills to pursue whatever future they wish. Of course, who knows if one or more of these talented kids will pursue music professionally.
Music is the perfect vehicle for development. When high standards of excellence are demanded, music builds critical thinking, hand-eye coordination, confidence and expression, all skills that are transferable to other endeavors.
Wilmington has many dedicated and capable music educators. In schools, the individual attention needed to excel in playing an instrument is often not possible due to time constraints, school budget limitations, scheduling and curricular priorities, all of which rarely allow for intensive, personalized instruction. In response, MELODY and the Music School offer complementary programs to what its colleagues can offer in schools.
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El-Sistema, “The System,” was founded in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician and activist José Antonio Abreu.
The movement has expanded globally with 140 programs in the U.S. and Canada, and hundreds of programs in other regions throughout the world. Each program takes its own spin on the methods and the goals, but all of them focus on immersion and high-quality music education for children with the fewest resources.
A good number of professional orchestras around the world have players and conductors who started in El Sistema, including, and perhaps most famously, the conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who announced recently that he will be taking the podium of the New York Philharmonic, after 13 years leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
MELODY in Wilmington was inspired by one of the Music School’s cello instructors, Jennifer Stomberg, and is now led by another faculty member, Program Director Caroline Stevenson, with organizational support from Program Administrator Summer Hawkins.
Look for the school to expand, adding new students each year as the program develops.
Go to Facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/msodmelody) to see the year-end MELODY performance and videos of daily sessions in violin and cello, along with “bucket band,” led by percussionist Chris Devaney.
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As a tuition-free program, MELODY requires contributed funding. I became a supporter of MELODY after hearing about its objectives and becoming familiar with the faculty’s excellence and the Music School’s programs.
Some foundations, businesses, individuals and government grants are helping, but additional contributors will ensure that this program can continue to strengthen our community at its core — starting with our children.
Visit www.musicschoolofdelaware.org/giving to make a designated donation to MELODY and help these children thrive!
Peter Compo is the author of the book “The Emergent Approach to Strategy,” supporter and strategic adviser to several El Sistema programs, and a board member of the Music School of Delaware.
