Inspired by the sensational success of the the countrywide El Sistema music program that involves several hundred thousand low-income children in Venezuela, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra today announced OrchKids, a new pilot program that will begin in the fall at an inner-city school.

About two dozen first-graders at Harriett Tubman Elementary School in Baltimore will participate in the program, which will be held three days a week. By the end of the school year, the students will have been introduced to basics of music and will choose an instrument to study in the subsequent years of the project. By the third year, those first OrchKids will be helping to mentor first-graders coming into the program.

Initial funding for OrchKids comes from Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker. BSO music director Marin Alsop has pledged $100,000 of her own as part of a four-to-one matching grant to support the project, which she envisions as "a program for the whole child." 

Alsop expects to visit the school periodically to participate in activities. Dan Trahey, a musician and educator who has taught in Baltimore public schools and elsewhere, is the program manager for OrchKids, which will involve a team of part-time music instructors.

The role of BSO musicians in the after-school program is still being worked out, but the orchestra will have direct interaction with the kids during visits to rehearsals and concerts at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Partners in the BSO's initiative include the Baltimore City Public School System, Peabody Institute, Arts Everyday, Baltimore School for the Arts and the Family League.