Earlier this month, students at William G. Hibbard Elementary School in Chicago received musical instruments.
These children participate in the Ravinia Festival’s REACH Orchestra, a free student-training orchestra at Hibbard Elementary.
Ravinia partnered with WTMX, WILV, WDRV and Wintrust Financial Banks to create an instrument drive through which music fans had the opportunity to give back to the community during the 2010 holiday season by donating new or used musical instruments at 27 participating bank drop-off sites in the Chicago and North Shore area.
Ravinia Festival connects music to thousands of families around Chicago through multi-tiered education programs, including a community conservatory in Lawndale, in-school training of teachers and students, and the Chicago-wide music appreciation program One Score, One Chicago.
The newest education effort is the REACH Orchestra, a student orchestra at Hibbard Elementary School based on the El Sistema orchestral education plan devised in Venezuela, which is a system of total immersion in music study. These programs, under the umbrella REACH*TEACH*PLAY, serve more than 75,000 people throughout the region.
