The Ellington - Outreach

While we cater to the adults in our community with our regular shows, we think it's crucial for children to get an appreciation for music early in life. With budget crunches, comes the belief (mistaken, in our opinion) that music and the arts aren't crucial for our children's learning. That's where we come in.

In keeping with our mission statement "to identify, cultivate, and expose artistic talent in our community", the Ellington has instituted the Ellington MusicBridge-a program for at-risk children.

By presenting live musical performance coupled with the fundamentals of music, the program "bridges" a connection between these children and local musicians.encouraging interaction between the children and the artists and creating opportunities for interested and talented children to begin musical study. Music can develop a child.s physical skills, and music study can contribute greatly to a child.s intellectual and emotional growth.

The value of a child's exposure to quality musical performance and the opportunity to study an instrument is well documented, as is the fact that the music and arts programs are the first to suffer cutbacks from school budgets. The opportunity to study music is almost non-existent for low-income children. Obstacles such as transportation worries and expense prevent these children from participating in these types of programs.

In 2003 we got off the ground with a series of concerts presented at Lynchburg's seven Parks and Recreation Centers. Lynchburg musician Lew Taylor helped us create "From Louis to Nelly-Pops to Hip Hop", and his group Jazmine played it out. The kids seemed to love it! (Either that, or they were being polite).

Now the Ellington Fellowship Playhouse has formed a unique partnership with the Lynchburg College Music Department and the Jubilee Family Development Center to provide music lessons to children who could not otherwise afford it.

Ten children selected by Jubilee are now taking part in group piano lessons and music instruction. The Monday classes include 13 lessons in the fall and 15 in the spring at the Hebb Music Center at LC.s Snidow Chapel. The lessons will culminate in a Winter Holiday Concert at LC on Dec. 14 and a Spring Piano Extravaganza at the Ellington on May 10. In addition, Dr. Ramsey is privately teaching an 11th student who had previous keyboarding experience.

The Ellington Fellowship playhouse is a non-profit 501c3 organization, and funding for the Music Bridge program so far has come strictly from patron donations and 50/50 raffles, as well as grant money from the Junior League of Lynchburg and BWX Technologies. More funds for music books and other instructional materials are always needed.

Dates at a glance:

Fall Semester: Mondays from 4:45-5:30 p.m. at LC.s Hebb Music Center (Snidow Chapel), 13 sessions through December. Winter Holiday Concert: Monday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. in Sydnor Performance Hall with a reception in the Flint Lobby to follow.

Spring Semester: Mondays from 4:45-5:30 p.m. at LC.s Hebb Music Center (Snidow Chapel), 15 sessions starting Jan. 25, 2010 through May.

Spring Piano Extravaganza: Monday, May 10, 2010 at the Ellington.

Contact: James Arnold, Ellington Board of Directors Vice President (434) 528-6072, or jarnoldfinancial@msn.com.

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