This article was originally published in the September 2017 Trenton Downtowner.
The New Jersey-based Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has awarded a $52,500 grant to Trenton Community Music School to support the Trenton Music Makers preschool and orchestra programs.
The Trenton Music Makers preschool program was launched in 2000 to ensure that Trenton’s pre-K students received the academic and social benefits implicit in high-quality early-childhood music and movement instruction. Developed in partnership with the Office of Early Childhood Programs of the Trenton Public Schools and the Center for Music and Young Children, then in Princeton, the program has to date engaged more than 3,000 children and their families and trained 250 classroom teachers to integrate high-quality music activity into their daily routines.
The orchestra, originally named El Sistema – Trenton, is an intensive music and social development program operating in Grant Elementary School and Dunn Middle School. Entering its fourth program year, the Trenton Music Makers Orchestra included 75 children last year and plans to grow to 110 in 2017-’18.
The Dodge Foundation has supported Trenton Community Music School’s community-based music programs since 2002.
