Tune Up Philly tunes up for another year
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Artswatch
Tune Up Philly tunes up for another year
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
Tune Up Philly, the innovative music program at St. Francis de Sales in West Philadelphia, has found funding to ensure its second year of operation, the 2011-12 school year.
The Knight Foundation awarded the program $150,000, which has been matched with another $150,000 from local philanthropist Carole Haas Gravagno, leaving $165,000 still needed to reach full funding.
About 80 students attend intensive after-school classes in ear-training and choral music, and receive instruction on a chosen instrument, through Tune Up Philly. The institute is modeled on the successful El Sistema program in Venezuela.
More on Tune Up Philly here.
Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic and culture writer for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale, expansion of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra's bankruptcy declaration in 2011, Philadelphia's evolving performing arts center and the general health of arts and culture.
Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. He has no time to practice today.
