The Board of Directors of Friends of Music Concerts is pleased to announce a new program to give young people in the community the opportunity to appreciate classical music with a view toward building audiences for the future.
We have started working with two of Westchester County’s outstanding music schools to provide scholarships to students from underserved communities in need of financial aid. The Friends of Music Concerts Scholarship program also the challenges faced presently by our local music schools in providing a superior level of musical education. The participating schools are:
Hoff-Barthelson Music School. Founded in 1944, the school serves more than 800 students on its Scarsdale campus as well as at various partner organizations throughout Westchester County. The School’s comprehensive approach to music education provides students with the opportunity to participate in weekly private lessons and musicianship classes with world-class teachers and accompanists; a wide array of bands and chamber music, jazz, choral, orchestral ensembles; and weekly performance workshops and recitals.
The Music Conservatory of Westchester is a nonprofit community music school dedicated to providing the extraordinary benefits of music to all in our community. Known for its high-quality programs, the Conservatory ensures broad access to its programs through its needs-based Scholarship Program, its Music Therapy program for people with disabilities, and Healing Our Heroes program for military veterans. This year the Conservatory’s Legacy Project is creating new teaching spaces, including an audio-video Recording Studio and a Digital Piano Lab. The Conservatory will become the very first in Westchester to offer a precollege certificate program in Recording Engineering and Music Production.
Funding for the Scholarship Program comes in part from donations made by individuals to Friends of Music Concerts and through the generosity of the Rea Charitable Trust and the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation.