Wednesday, February 27, 2019

David France: Happy 6th Birthday to The Roxbury Youth Orchestra!





David France writes:

Only a dream...I only had a dream...no money, no resources..only a dream...but 6 years ago I shared that dream. I realized it couldn't only live inside of me and having NO idea how to make it happen I simply starting sharing it.

I started at Berklee College of Music...literally on the sidewalk with Craig Dwyer and we stopped people whose instrument cases looked like violins, violas, and cellos and said..."If you go to Berklee and you play the cello....you probably have another cello somewhere....would you want to donate that extra instrument to a kid in Boston?" and they did....a month later with the help of Boston music students and The Hungry for Music Foundation we had 28 donated instruments.

I then shared this vision with musicians in Boston of how I wanted to create an orchestra that existed to light a positive fire in the lives of kids who couldn't normally afford lessons...and Rhett Price, David Hurtado Gómez, WildSeed SunDay, Josh Knowles, and Aaron Fried caught that vision and said they would teach with me for FREE
A few weeks before launching a principal at a middle school in Roxbury said "none of our kids want to be in your orchestra but we have a space we're not using afterschool that you can use for free" and we had a home to house this dream.
Then we needed kids so after many assembly speeches 60 kids said they were interested, I invited 20 to the program and on the first day 6 years ago today...6 kids showed....and we launched.
6 years later those kids who never touched an instrument have performed over 50 concerts for over 10,000 people. 2 of our alumni are now college graduates, 2 are college seniors, we've had 1 valedictorian, numerous relationships created, and countless lives changed forever...set on a more hopefully trajectory for the future.
None of this would have happened if I kept my dream to myself and if so many of you didn't respond in support to that vision.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Our work has only just begun and we need your help more than ever to see this vision live on in the far future. If you'd like to help make a difference in the lives of our inspired community of musicians in Roxbury I'd graciously ask you to consider becoming one of our monthly patrons. For as little as $2 a month you can help us make this project more sustainable so it can live on as our legacy far into the future.

Make a difference and become a Patron TODAY: http://bit.ly/2nzXcf4

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