Each Sunday, around 200 school children fill the studios at the University of Maryland School of Music in College Park.
The students, ranging in age from pre-K to high school, learn music from graduate students at the Terrapin Community Music School.
“Maryland School of Music sponsors this program in collaboration with Arts for All here on campus, and we are able to heavily subsidize the instruction,” said professor Allison Durbin.
There are more than 60 instructors on staff at the school.
“We are able to offer these lessons and ensembles to these students for about $200 a semester … and about 60% of our students receive financial aid on top of that,” said Durbin, a professionally trained violinist and also assistant clinical professor of music education and director of the Terrapin Community Music School.
Piano, trombone, flute, tuba, violin, viola, cello, bass and French horn are just a few of the instruments that middle and high school students receive private lessons on, in addition to ensemble classes and classes in musicianship.
“I care about what they listen to when they’re walking to school. I care about how they talk about music. I care about them sort of contextualizing music, both historically and also just in their lives,” said Lauren McGinley, a music education doctoral student who teaches musicianship. “I think it just gives them this well-rounded experience.”
Behind the closed doors of the studios, students paired with graduate students could be seen learning their instruments. In a nearby classroom, small children sat on the floor in a circle singing a song. The school’s “Hatchling” program instructs children from birth to age 8.
“This is my third semester here. I started exactly about a year ago. It’s a very good experience … it brings different kids from all over … Maryland,” said Cheyenne Souvenir, of Glendale, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, who is studying viola.
She added the lessons are cost affordable, too.
“To have 10 months of lessons and musicianship class, a really good price. And it’s a really good experience to learn more about your instrument and interact with other students who also play other things,” Souvenir said.
Durbin said she always wanted a community school at the university.
“It’s always been a plan and a dream of the University of Maryland, School of Music, to have this happen,” Durbin said. “The beauty of this program, I think, came out of a need of people being so isolated in the pandemic.”
The current semester will run until December and will conclude with a recital. A new semester will begin in February.
“Any week now, we’re going to have a set of steel pans being delivered from Trinidad. So we’re going to have a steel pan ensemble, which is going to be incredible for our students. And I hope to have small ensembles, a youth orchestra, a wind band, a choir, and just grow based on … what our students want and what our community is looking for,” Durbin said.
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