“A posse of hard-core LA gang-bangers walked through a Farmer’s Market on a Sunday morning:  tattoos, shaved heads, oversized blue clothing.  A tiny kid was playing Brahms on a tiny violin.  The gang members stopped to listen.  After 5 or 6 minutes, I watched those gang members pull out their own money and lay it gently in the little kid’s case.  I was earning a doctorate in Public Health at UCLA at the time, focused on what it takes to make a healthy community.  That day, those gang members handed me a powerful lesson.  They led me to research linking early-sustained music study with improvements in math, language, brain development and behavior – the basis for Harmony Project.

I couldn’t help those gang members, but they changed my life.  In 2001, after I completed my degree, I founded Harmony Project with 36 high need students, a $9,000 check from the Rotary Club of Hollywood, and a small group of dedicated board members.   The money quickly ran out, but the teachers agreed to teach their students for free while we struggled to raise funds to continue the program.

Ten years later, we’re still here.  We have built an institution in Los Angeles that is inspiring similar programs in communities throughout the country.  Last year we received the President’s Coming Up Taller Award, the nation’s highest honor for an arts program targeting high need youth.  Harmony Project’s success is the result of the hard work and commitment of our students, our families, our teachers, our staff, our board, and our terrific community partners and sponsors all working together.  Together, we have shined a bright light on the tremendous talent and potential of young people the rest of the city would never otherwise have heard of – or have appreciated.  Together, we bring music into our most troubled neighborhoods.  With music, we bring discipline, hope and joy.  Our students remain enrolled in school and our own scholarship program helps them go on to college.  Together, we have made a beautiful beginning.  Together, there is no limit to what we can achieve over the next ten years.”