Excited kindergartners meet their violins

DURHAM -- Nearly 50 children marched into the community center's auditorium Saturday, eyeing the shiny instruments that are intended to change their lives.

On a table in the front corner, small violins in various shades of wood, strung and displayed atop their black padded cases, awaited their new owners.

When the children were finally allowed to touch them, they made the first notes in a symphony of hope.

"I think it is beautiful," said Jaria Spears, 5, creating screeching sounds as her grandmother, Annie, beamed.

The day marked the official kickoff of KidZNotes, a program that aims to use classical music to inspire learning and break the cycle of poverty.

The program will provide free music training to 60 Durham children from three elementary schools, Eastway, Y.E. Smith and E.K. Powe.

Sponsored by Durham Public Schools, the Durham Symphony and the East Durham Children's Initiative, the KidZNotes program is based on a model called "El Sistema" that began in Venezuela. That program has established a national system of youth orchestras that promotes positive change for thousands of the country's underprivileged children.

In the Durham program, most of the children are kindergarten age, but about 20 third-graders are also serving as leaders and mentors to the younger participants, said KidZNotes Executive Director Katie Wyatt. She spent a year studying and exploring the curriculum, methods and philosophy of El Sistema.

The youngsters will get four days of after-school music lessons and orchestra practice on Saturdays.

Hattie Hunter sat among the parents, siblings and guardians who gathered Saturday at Holton's Career and Resource Center, the program's home base, as the children practiced singing, dancing and jingling bells.

Hunter kept her eye on her grandson Lawrence Hunt, who moved in with her more than two years ago after his father was incarcerated and his mother abandoned him, Hunter said.

The tall third-grader at Y.E. Smith school loves to play the keyboard and has been inquiring about playing the piano, Hunter said.

"He always asked me, 'How do you get to learn this type of stuff?'" said Hunter, 53. "But we don't have the funds."

The kickoff drew an eager, hopeful crowd. The children, wearing bright red KidZNotes T-shirts, marched into the auditorium, where they were introduced to Durham Symphony Music Director William Henry Curry.

Curry said that while growing up in Pittsburgh, he was always interested in music.

"But in my household there wasn't any money for those frills," he said. "However, in sixth grade, all of a sudden free instruments, free lessons. And that began a whole new chapter in my life. So I can tell you what a wonderful journey you are going to go on."

That journey will include making lifelong friends, discovering the glories of classical music and appreciating past masters, he said.

"Once you discover, 'Oh my gosh, Mozart was just as wonderful as Lady Gaga," he said, "that will be a great moment in your life."

As Lawrence Hunter picked up his violin and played it like a guitar, tears clouded his grandmother's eyes. "It was good," Lawrence said about receiving his new instrument. Later this year he will be allowed to take it home.

Glendy Sanchez, 5, posed and played her violin as her father, Prospero Sanchez, beamed and snapped photos with his phone.

"This is another step for my daughter," Sanchez said in his native Spanish. "She will be confident and develop in the community."