Posted: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 5:45 pm | Updated: 12:00 am, Wed Aug 28, 2013.
MEDFORD — Through summer scholarships, a local jazz ensemble and music school have paid the way for 44 children to learn music, including two little girls who play a mean “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
On Wednesday night, the township children will show what they’ve learned during the last 10 weeks of lessons when they perform a 7 p.m. front-porch concert at the New Jersey School of Music on Union Street.
David Bermingham of Medford, a member of the M-Town Jazz Jam, said the impetus for the scholarships was to find a way to introduce young children to music after budget constraints forced the district to cut the elementary-level music program a few years ago.
The jazz ensemble invited young musicians to perform with them and sells CDs of the music to raise money for the South Jersey Music Education Partnership that the ensemble formed to fund the scholarships.
Other members of the ensemble are Dale Storer, Link Hansen and Garrett White, all of Medford, and Dave Ahern of Mount Laurel.
Renee Sutin, whose family owns the music studio, said it joined the ensemble in offering the scholarships for 10 weekly lessons over the summer. The children, in grades one through eight, are divided into about 15 classes learning band and orchestral instruments.
The music studio has been in existence since 1958, but the Sutins purchased it in 2001. It offers voice and music lessons on a variety of instruments.
Sutin said she used to say they offered lessons on every instrument, until someone asked her about bagpipes and accordions.
Read more: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/medford-s-sounds-of-music/article_f13baa96-41b1-5d4c-a49a-e8e0edcca8dd.html
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