Music in the Community Initiative
The Music School follows the tradition started by the Settlement House movement a century ago with a commitment to making quality arts education accessible to everyone. Financial aid for individual students is a significant part of the Music School's budget.
Music School partnerships with public schools, preschools, retirement communities, public housing, and other human service agencies further expand access. The School's Music in the Community Initiative (MICI) fosters those partnerships, allowing Music School faculty to teach hundreds of individuals across New Hampshire who face restrictions of disability, distance, or economic status.
Programs have included jazz workshops at a residential institution for youth with neurological, developmental, and emotional challenges; weekly percussion classes at a Manchester after-school program for children in public housing; a chorus for adults with developmental disabilities; a music and movement class for teenagers working with toddlers in an on-site daycare center at Laconia High School; a blues band for clients of a mental health center; and intensive workshops and master classes at high schools.
Music in the Community Initiative Recent and Current Partners
Schools in Concord, Manchester, Hopkinton, Barnstead, Campton, Amherst, Bristol, Littleton, Bow, Belmont, and Laconia
21st Century Community Learning Centers, Manchester
Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority
Havenwood-Heritage Heights retirement community
Child and Family Services and The Children’s Place
Merrimack Valley Day Care
Laconia Head Start
Riverbend Community Mental Health
Spaulding Youth Center
The Music in the Community Initiative (MICI) reaches hundreds of NH individuals facing challenges of disability, age, distance, or income level. It builds partnerships that support sequential learning over multiple years. Most of these partnerships exceed 7 years of continual service.