The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

Photo: The Archipelago Project

This September marks the launch of another important musical outreach program for Baltimore City public school students. OrchKids, with Peabody’s Dan Trahey (left) as project manager, will begin as a pilot program with 25 first graders at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in West Baltimore.

The young students will meet after school three times a week to learn the principles of music through listening, singing, and playing instruments. The inaugural class is expected to continue in the program through the fifth grade and each year a new class of first graders will enter the program. The goal: for OrchKids to expand to other city schools over the next few years. Peabody is one of several community partners for the project, which is being led by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

“We’re trying to put a sense of hope and sense of optimism and sense of empowerment in these kids by using music,” says Trahey. “If none of these kids makes it into the BSO, I will not bat an eye. My goal is to have our OrchKids be the civic and business leaders of tomorrow.”

— Maria Blackburn