ALEXANDRIA, VA — Music instructor Jonathan Jones knows students that wish they could stay in music class all day during the school year. While students have to balance a number of core classes during the school year, a free program at Alexandria City Public Schools lets music students hone their skills over the summer.
For two weeks, ACPS elementary and middle school students attend a music camp at Alexandria City High School led by ACPS music instructors with help from high school student volunteers. Veronica Jackson, orchestra director at Alexandria City High School, told Patch about 130 students are participating in the program. Participating students are between fourth and eighth grades.
“A lot of students don’t pick up their instrument during the summer, and they’re very, very rusty by the time they start the school year,” said Jones. “This camp is kind of a boost for them to be encouraged to continue to practice throughout the summer as well.”
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“They learn new music, they learn techniques and learn different parts about their instruments and how to play them,” added Robert Salgado, an Alexandria City High School rising senior who volunteers with the program. “And it culminates every session with a big performance where they play the music that they’ve been working on in front of their parents and their peers to show off what they’ve learned over the couple of weeks.”
At music camp, students are placed into different ensembles based on their experience. According to Jones, elementary school students may only see their music teachers once or twice a week during the school year, so they get to play music during the summer they otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to.
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“I think this program basically gives students from Alexandria City Public Schools, an opportunity to kind of enhance their musical acumen,” Jones told Patch. “We’re kind of in a sports-centric kind of district. But they have an opportunity to kind of really enhance their craft and be among peers doing the same thing.”
Students also get treated to performances by professional musicians. This year, the Army band and nonprofit Sound Impact performed, according to Meagan Carrick, the ACPS fine arts instructional specialist.
Salgado, a violinist, was one of the students who benefited from the program when he was the age of this year’s participating students. When Jackson, who directs the orchestra Salgado is a part of, recruited him to help, he decided to “pay it forward.”
“It’s really important because as somebody who did it myself, I can say for a fact that it gives you such a big opportunity to learn and develop your skills as a musician,” said Salgado.
Yasmeen Mukhtar, a rising senior who plays viola, believes the program has grown since she participated. Now she is a volunteer.
“It just means so much to me to see how much the program has grown,” said Mukhatar. “When I was starting out, it was mainly just certain kids from one school. It’s become really diverse among the student body, and seeing it now and seeing how many people came to participate from all the different schools in Alexandria, who just all enjoyed music, it’s really nice to see.”
The program is free for participating students. That covers instrument rentals, bus transportation, breakfast and lunch.
With free participation, Jones says students of different socioeconomic backgrounds get to learn together.
This allows both students to really come together and have the same opportunity,” said Jones. “And it really kind of brings in kind of a melting pot of students from different backgrounds coming together, getting to know each other.”
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