Music for All

About Music for All

“ALL of the groups we hosted were wonderful. This is by FAR the best year that we've had. I cannot say enough to you as to how well prepared the students were as teachers as well as musicians. None of the groups selected music that was inaccessible to children's ears! Another positive was that all the groups won the children over with their sincere attempts to talk with them and respect them as listeners. I was thrilled and so were the principals. More importantly, the KIDS loved it. P.S The Brass group was the talk of the school!”

— Alice Pratt, Music teacher
School #16

That rave review was just one of many received by ESM chamber music groups for their Music for All performances presented in the Rochester last year. Each year the Music for All Program (MFA) sends over 40 chamber music groups out into the local community to perform approximately 90 concerts for audiences ranging from preschoolers to senior citizens. Over 2000 people in the greater Rochester community are able to enjoy live music through MFA each year.

ESM is currently the only school of music to have such an extensive outreach program as an integral part of the chamber music curriculum. It is a curricular requirement for all brass, harp, piano, string, and wind chamber music groups to perform two concerts in the community during the Spring semester, one for a school-aged audience and one for an adult audience.

The MFA preparation begins each year in January guest presentation by an established professional chamber music group. We ask the guests to perform an educational program for a group of children, while the ESM students observe from the back of the room. In the weeks following this presentation, the ESM students then submit written outlines of their two programs and present a dress rehearsal of the school program for a faculty member and their peers. Finally, the groups are ready to take their performances out into the community. In 2006, all school performances will be presented on March 21, and the community performances will take place during a two-week period from March 22-April 5.