“When the Annapolis Symphony Academy opened its doors in 2018, it already had an ambitious mission: to provide high-quality, affordable music instruction to any student that had the drive to learn,” writes Elizabeth Nonemaker in Sunday’s (9/26) Baltimore Sun. “Now, with the launch of two new programs, the Orion Youth Orchestra and the Discovery Early Childhood Music Classes, [it] aims to train its students from their first C major scale to their first professional audition…. According to the academy’s founder and director, [Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster] Netanel Draiblate … the goal was never merely to provide individual lessons, but rather ‘an all-inclusive package.’ … Since its launch, the academy has aimed for a demographic wherein 50 percent of its student body comes from ethnicities that are underrepresented in orchestral positions. That includes Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Indigenous musicians, which, according to a 2016 study from the League of American Orchestras, altogether comprise roughly 4 percent of professional orchestral players. [There are] scholarships for any student that needs it…. 16-year-old Christopher Chavez … started learning the violin through his school at the age of seven, but … until he joined the Annapolis Symphony Academy in 2019 [private lessons] ‘weren’t affordable,’ he said.”
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