Detroit Symphony offers instrument to any kid who wants to learn
mainDSO chairman Mark Davidoff has announced plans to buy instruments for Detroit’s kids.
The scheme is called Detroit Harmony and it’s open to ‘to any K-12 student in public, private and charter schools throughout the city’.
It is not yet fully funded.
Scheme? Really; does an attempt by a cultural organization to initiate a program with the possibility of enriching the lives of children warranty a malevolent characterization? At the moment the world is full of full-fledged schemes undermining common norms of decency without using the term to disparage a program designed for good. Save the cynicism for a real scheme.
Scheme is an often used word in England/the UK to refer to program/programme. That is all.
As a verb the definition is:
make plans, especially in a devious way or with intent to do something illegal or wrong.
There might be a misunderstanding in Amos’s comment of the use (in UK English) of “scheme” as a noun. The dictionary definition of “scheme” is “a large-scale systematic plan or arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect”. It’s only when “scheme” is used as a verb that it can suggest some malevolence (as in “to scheme”, i.e. to plot). So here there is nothing perjorative intended – this is a brilliant idea by the DSO. Indeed, we could do with something like this at most British state-funded schools where, in many, music has been downgraded to the point of near extinction.
Just hope that being the music ed department for Detroit doesn’t bankrupt the DSO.
No reason you can’t contribute and help them succeed!
If only they offered this program when I was a young aspiring oboist in Detroit. Nevertheless, my struggling mother somehow acquired one for me.
A great idea! Every child should be involved with the arts.
It was the late, great jazz saxophonist, Phil Woods who said it best: “If a kid is holding a musical instrument, he can’t be holding a gun.”
This is an inspired idea by the Detroit Symphony, bringing to young people in the city the many benefits of learning to play a musical instrument while providing the basis of future audiences that represent Detroit’s ethnicity. Bravo!
It’s a fantastic scheme! Well done DSO! I hope it is a great success, and that it brings much joy to the students. Furthermore, with computers and robots capable of fulfilling human tasks, skewing education towards the creative subjects has got to be a benefit.
What a brilliant new program! Sensitive benefactors will come forward.