El Sistema Indianapolis

A group of music educators in Indianapolis has launched a program of free music education for elementary public school children.  The model for this program is "El Sistema," a global and national movement "to effect social change through music for children with the fewest resources and the greatest need."  

This fall, we completed an eight-week pilot program of ukulele instruction for about 20 students,  Because of the pandemic, we did this all online, using Zoom, with instruction provided by a music teacher from IPS school 87, a professor and students from Marian University, and several professional musicians.  The course also included workshops on music composition and drumming.The program was completely free for the students, and they can keep their ukuleles as long as they stay in the program.

We plan to initiate a full-scale program in 2021, though questions of timing, and whether the course can be offered face-to-face rather than online, depend on the pandemic.  With sufficient resources, we would expand the program to other schools and neighborhoods in Indianapolis, and introduce different instruments, such as violins.

Resources (of about $10,000) are needed to pay stipends for the instructors and the workshop leaders,  to provide instruments to the children,  and to provide transportation for those students that need it.