The Preparatory Music Program will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a group concert 4 p.m. Sunday, May 11, in Lehman Auditorium.

More than 100 string students, ages 3-18, will perform music from the Suzuki repertoire. The group includes violin, viola and cello students who take lessons in the program.

Preparatory Music student Jamie Inouye displays her winning-design t-shirt. Photo by Jon Styer

To help mark the special occasion, the department held a t-shirt design contest. The winning student, Jamie Inouye, 10, is in fourth grade at Waterman Elementary School.

Students who have bought t-shirts will wear them during the May 11 concert and at other public events.

The concert is open to the public free of charge. Contributions are welcomed for the Preparatory Music Program.

This year, the Preparatory Music Program, part of EMU’s music department, has 238 students taking instrumental lessons, 68 in Musikgarten classes, 11 in Junior Strings ensemble and 33 in the Youth Orchestra.

A Humble Beginning

The program got its start when EMU graduate Wanda Teague Alger began teaching Suzuki violin in a local music store in the early 1980’s. A Suzuki piano teacher and Suzuki cello teacher joined her, and she moved her program to EMU in 1987.

EMU bought the business from Ms. Alger in 1988, and the Preparatory Music Program – formally, Shenandoah Valley Suzuki Strings – became a part of the university’s music department.

Scott Hosfeld joined the program in 1989 as director and violin/viola teacher and Sharon M. Miller as violin/viola teacher. At that time, 80 students were enrolled in the program.

The Shenandoah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra formed in 1990, partially funded by a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Maria Lorcas is the present conductor.

The 1990’s decade saw instrumental lessons added in guitar, flute, clarinet and harp. The Junior Strings ensemble was added in 2001 to help educate string students in orchestral playing. Sharon M. Miller is conductor.

Community Outreach

Christa Stoner, an instructor in the preparatory music program’s Musikgarten classes, leads students and parents in a music activity. Learn more about Musikgarten at EMU…

An Outreach Violin Project started in 2002 to provide instruction to area low-income students.

This project has been supported for seven years by the Arts Council of the Valley, the Virginia Commission for the Arts for three years and individual donors.

Partnerships with Harrisonburg city schools have allowed lessons to take place on school grounds, and the Music Gallery has supplied compact discs and supplies for the students.

In 2007, the city of Harrisonburg asked EMU’s Preparatory Music Program to start string instruction in all four elementary schools. The classes are held after school and are available to all fourth and fifth grade students. Read more about the string instruction program in Harrisonburg schools…

“We view the Preparatory Music Program as a service to the community, providing quality musical opportunities for students of all ages and backgrounds,” said Miller, the administrative director. “It’s been exciting and gratifying to see the growth of the program and to learn of the impact it’s making on students and families.”

More information on the Preparatory Music Program or the concert is available from Miller at 540-432-4200 or at www.emu.edu/music/prepprog.

The city school system is funding a strings instruction program through EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, part of the university’s music department. It will begin early October for fourth and fifth grade students at Keister, Waterman, Stone Spring and Spotswood Elementary schools.

Sharon M. Miller, director of EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, with violin student Caitlin McAvoy, 14, of Harrisonburg. She is a freshman at Turner Ashby High School who has taken lessons for six years. Photo by Jim Bishop

Initially, between 35-40 students from the four schools will receive one hour of after-school group instruction for a minimal fee.

Instructors in EMU’s Preparatory Music Program will teach the weekly classes. The city will provide bus transportation for students following the lessons.

Next year, the program will accept middle school students, fifth through eighth grade.

Successful Outreach Programs

Joan Griffing, chair of EMU’s music department, said the school system approved the strings instruction “as a result of the success of EMU’s “violin outreach project” begun in 2002 as a way of offering violin instruction to low-income students in the city and county. At the start of 2007, 50 students were taking lessons once a week after school at Stone Spring, Keister and Waterman Elementary and in evening classes at EMU.

The outreach project has been funded in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Arts Council of the Valley.

Music Gallery, a Harrisonburg music store, provides many of the CD’s and other supplies that students need, and parents of Preparatory Music Program students have donated used instruments. The evening outreach project will continue along with the new after-school strings instruction program.

“We deeply appreciate the grant funding that makes the outreach program possible, but in the longer-range view, it will be better to have strings instruction as part of the school’s music program,” Dr. Griffing noted.

Bonnie C. Hobson, instructional supervisor for Harrisonburg City Schools, said she is “excited to see this project move ahead” and expressed hope that it will eventually lead to a string instruction program from kindergarten through 12th grade.”

Program Long Time in Coming

Sharon M. Miller, director of EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, will administer the new strings instruction program. “This is something that parents and teachers have been requesting for years, and we’re elated to be able to help make it happen,” Miller said.

“EMU has provided string instruction to the community through the Shenandoah Valley Preparatory Music Program for many years, because the EMU music faculty believe that music can enrich everyone’s life and should be accessible to all,” Griffing said. “The new strings program in the local schools is a wonderful opportunity to continue achieving this mission.”

According to Griffing and Miller, the availability of strings instruction on the elementary school level will offer numerous benefits to students – “The satisfaction of learning a new skill, the enjoyment of making music with fellow students while developing a stronger work ethic and problem-solving skills.”

Griffing believes student participants will gain more appreciation for Virginia’s musical heritage – including bluegrass music – and “will be more likely to appreciate classical music and support the fine arts as adults.

“Studies have shown that students who play an instrument are most likely to appreciate classical music and support the fine arts as adults,” she said. “Strings are an integral part of today’s musical world, from symphony orchestras to movie sound tracks to rock bands.

“Not all families can afford private lessons or an instrument,” she said. “Public school programs like this provide an alternate way to learn to play a string instrument,” Griffing added.

“We’re excited about the potential this strings program has and the opportunity it affords to give back to the local community,” Miller said.

Students may register by seeing their school music teacher or by calling EMU’s preparatory music department at 432-4277. An orientation meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. Sept. 24 at Stone Spring Elementary School.