Each day after school, the halls of Carver and Greenwood Elementary Schools come alive with music, courtesy of the nonprofit organization Soundscapes.
The Newport News nonprofit organization has provided free and affordable music education for 15 years, benefitting around 300 children each year and more than 2,000 since it began.
The centerpiece of Soundscapes is its afterschool program at elementary schools. Carver Elementary has a full symphony program with strings, wind and brass instruments and percussion, while Greenwood Elementary focuses on jazz. Students there are taught the saxophone, trumpet, trombone, rhythm, guitar, piano and bass, said Reynaldo Ramirez, co-founder and program director.
They recently added Discovery STEM Academy to their program, teaching wind instruments and will soon add recorders and bucket drums, he said.
Soundscapes was founded by Anne Henry and Ramirez. Henry was inspired by a 60 Minutes segment featuring the nationwide Venezuelan music program, El Sistema, for children in poverty. She took note children began the program in early elementary school.
“It showed that it was giving children in poverty something to live for and self-esteem. It was inspiring to see that if you intervene at an early, you give them opportunity,” Henry said.
At the time, Henry was working as an architect and didn’t know any musicians. She met with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra hoping to partner with them. However, they did not have the funds. In that meeting was Ramirez, who was the symphony’s Director of Education.
For two years, nothing progressed as Ramirez spent time working in Baltimore. Upon returning to Hampton Roads, he reached out to Henry with renewed interest in reviving the idea.
“It was kind of serendipity,” Henry said.
They began with 40 first graders, 40 sets of drumsticks and 40 large white buckets from Home Depot at Carver Elementary with two-hour daily sessions that included a meal.
They are confident their program makes a difference for children. With support from a grant by the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters Foundation, they hired Dr. David Dirlam, a nationally recognized expert in learning assessment in 2014. He developed a customized rubric to evaluate each student’s progress across nine specific musical and behavioral dimensions.
While data is an important measuring stick, it is also measured with personal success. Emma Thomas started in “the bucket band” in second grade at Carver Elementary School. The viola player is now a sophomore at James Madison University majoring in music with a minor in nonprofit studies. She sits on Soundscapes’ board and hopes to establish a similar program. Her twin brother, Sebastian, plays in the drum line at Liberty University.
The first-generation college student said the “teaching artists” not only taught her music but readied her for college.
“When I got here (JMU), I felt like ‘Let’s do this,’” she said.
While there has been significant growth, Soundscapes is not stopping.
The group took over management of the 65-year-old Peninsula Youth Orchestra (PYO) in July 2020. The two organizations partnered since 2016. The pandemic nearly closed the volunteer-run PYO. Rather than let it fold, Soundscapes stepped in and re-launched it in February 2021.
Soundscapes will also launch the Peninsula Youth Jazz Band for advanced middle school musicians up to ninth grade. Musicians will work on improvisation, jazz theory and ensemble performance with Steven Cunningham, a celebrated jazz and classical musician who teaches at Hampton University.
