Miami Music Project: A jewel in the city’s crown

It is the time of the year to think of the good things, gather with family and friends, and look forward to the new year and what it might bring. It is also a time of giving and listening to music; a time to be thankful for all the wonderful things we have. So let me share with you a great experience I’ve been a part of now for the past several years. It is one of Miami’s jewels. And it is a gift given to me by a family who has become very close and dear friends, all as a result of a friendship started by my daughter, Camila, with a schoolmate, the musician in this story, Bali.

The diamond is the Miami Music Project. It is, to put it as simply as possible, inspiring. I mention MMP during the Christmas and Hanukkah seasons because we spend so much time delving into the negative (and there’s too much of that, I understand) that we often forget the wonderful things that we do possess.  

MMP was founded in 2008, and now reaches over 750 underserved youth (aged 6-18 years-old) with year-round after-school music education programs and additional enrichment opportunities, all free of charge. This independent, non-profit organization’s outreach includes one of the country’s largest El Sistema-inspired orchestra programs, a four-week summer music camp, intensive orchestra boot camps, and training for professional musicians who aim to become teaching artists. Guests artists that have worked with the students in the past include conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, James Judd, Stephane Deneve and Maximiano Valdes, composer Avner Dorman, New World Symphony Fellows, and musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra.

“As of today, Miami Music Project has reached thousands of children and youth across Miami-Dade County, achieving national prominence as one of the largest, most successful, socially transformative music initiatives in the U.S.,” said MMP Executive Director Anna Pietraszko. “We are proud to offer free of charge, after-school programming to all students with no barriers to entry, regardless of race or economic status.”

Miami Music Project’s El Sistema-inspired orchestra is informed by the teachings of Venezuelan musician, economist and activist, Jose Antonio Abreu, based on a set of inspiring ideals that seek to effect social change through the ambitious pursuit of musical excellence. El Sistema focuses primarily on children with the fewest resources and greatest need.

And every time I see one of their performances I am inspired to the point of choking back tears of emotion and joy. It is one of those times here in Miami when children of so many ages and backgrounds, from far and near, some born here and others born in countries from around the globe, all work as one, smiles on their faces, proudly producing some of the most beautiful music my ears and my soul have been privileged to hear. 

On a recent Saturday (Dec. 1), at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, they performed their 2018 holiday celebration. What a way to start off the season…! The program, obviously, was dedicated to music appropriate to the time of the year. The orchestra, composed of all of MMP’s groups, from the novices to the more experienced who will soon be off to colleges and schools such as Juilliard, FIUs Frost School of Music and others, played favorites from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” to “All I want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey, and all-time favorite “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” On that day, it even snowed on stage, setting the mood perfectly for the holiday season. 

With Christmas and the New Year just around the corner I wanted to introduce some of you to this jewel in Miami’s crown. I also wanted to thank Bali, a 13-year-old violinist and amazingly talented and precocious young lady, who is one child, of so many, on whose hope for a renaissance in humanity and the humanities I, for one, have hung my hat on. 

Moments like the one I spent on that Saturday listening to the Miami Music Project’s Youth and Children’s Orchestra are what give me hope for the future.   

Happy holidays!