No Gifts, Just Music!

Changing Lives, note by note!

In many public schools, the hallways, classrooms, and auditoriums have gone quiet. Music education has become a luxury and thousands of children are growing up with increasingly unequal opportunities to thrive. 

Education Through Music-Colorado is closing this gap by integrating weekly music classes into the core curriculum of under-resourced schools. They hire exceptional teachers to create tailored curricula for each student. They provide music instruments, and organize concerts that engage the community, giving students a platform to showcase their talents. 

They build multi-year sustainable programs that help students’ creativity and growth flourish while inviting families to become involved. The result for students is cognitive development, academic achievement and emotional wellbeing.

A steady drumbeat, thirty years and counting

Education Through Music (ETM) is a national network that launched programming more than 30 years ago in New York followed by expansion to Los Angeles and, more recently, Denver. As one of the largest nonprofit providers of comprehensive, direct music education in U.S. schools, ETM has already impacted over 300,000 students nationwide.

Research shows that students who have access to music education from a young age receive substantial long-term benefits. Based on principal, teacher and student responses, the integration of ETM programming in schools fosters teamwork, engagement, and persistence, as well as student growth in oral expression, critical thinking, and autonomy.

Bridging the divide in Colorado

ETM-CO's effort to establish programming in Colorado is just getting started. Since 2019, they have been dedicated to bridging the gap in music education, currently reaching 2,500 students in grades ECE-8 across eight schools in low-income neighborhoods. However, the need remains immense—thousands more students are still waiting for the support they provide.

What sets them apart is not just what they do, but how they do it. Rather than simply distributing instruments or offering sporadic after-school programs, they integrate music education directly into the school. They do this through the leadership of exceptional music teachers who work with students on a weekly basis throughout the school year. This ensures consistent practice, skill development, and ongoing relationships with dedicated music educators who foster the many benefits of music education.

They don’t just stop at teaching. They empower school principals to hire their teachers as full-time staff once the program proves successful and engaging. In fact, three of their partner schools have already hired their teachers, allowing them to reinvest their resources into expanding to new schools and reaching more students.

They prioritize Title I schools in low-income neighborhoods, where more than 82% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Nearly 88% of their students come from racial and ethnic minority groups. Above all, they ensure that every child—regardless of background or ability—has access to high-quality, inclusive, and meaningful music education.