About The Program | Model
The Harmony Program addresses a shortage of both well-trained music teachers and music education opportunities for economically disadvantaged children. To address this scarcity, Harmony recruits college students from music performance and music education programs and trains them to teach instrumental music in nearby public schools.
Harmony Instructors
Harmony Program instructors are undergraduates, graduate students, and recent alumni of departments of music performance and music education. In order to be selected to participate in the program, they are asked to complete a program application outlining their musical backgrounds and achievements and describing their interest in teaching. They are required to provide three references and attend a personal interview with the Harmony Program before final selections are made.
Participating teachers receive professional development training, classroom observation, formal evaluation, hands-on classroom teaching experience and hourly stipends for their teaching services.
If you are interested in teaching with the Harmony Program,
please complete and submit an online application.
Harmony Students
Children enrolled in the Harmony Program are elementary school students without access to instrumental music instruction. Interested students complete applications and are asked to write a brief essay describing their interest in music. Parents are asked to discuss their own interest in the program and the ways in which they will support their child's musical education.
Additionally, students submit evaluation forms completed by their teachers and attend a mandatory instrument demonstration/orientation event. Participating children receive daily music lessons, musical instruments, books, supplies, and cultural activities, entirely free of charge.