BSO Program Gives City Students The Gift Of Music

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- At first glance, it looks like summer school, but then when you listen, the sounds coming out of the Seed Academy clearly belong to beginners working on becoming better.

Bruce Bueso-Juarez is learning to play at nine years old. Jared Perry is teaching him, and thanks to the BSO, 1200 students are learning to play.

They're part of a one and a half million dollar plan to put instruments into the hands of city kids.

They say learning sheet music is an instrument for change.

"It's supposed to bring these kids from places where they're unlikely to be successful, statistically, and say it doesn't matter what statistics are when you afford them the access to an instrument, they can accel, just like anyone," says Jared Perry, BSO OrchKids Teacher.

And it's working.

"So it's been really amazing to watch the growth in one year," says mom Carol Moore. Her son Jaden is 10.

"I want to do this for the rest of my life, I want to be able to perform with the viola," he says.

And he wouldn't be so certain, had this Orch-kids not also taught respect, responsibility, and resilience.

"My number one priority is for you to be a great individual," says Perry.

Desha banks was in that first class of 30, and credits Orch-kids with some of her success and college goals.

"I don't want to major in my instrument, I want to be a pediatrician, but I still want to have the instrument around and know how to play," she says.

City kids, getting help to rise to the challenge.

On Saturday, one of the Orch-kids bands will play at the Meyerhoff at 4:30. The Orch-kids brass band will also be touring the grounds, giving impromptu concerts on the street.

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