Even though COVID-19 has forced the cancellation of many of its longstanding in-person activities, local nonprofit Elemental Music has been given plenty of reasons to celebrate in recent weeks.
Having begun 10 years ago as a program that provided lessons to about two dozen students who played string instruments in the area, Elemental Music has now served nearly 2,000 amateur musicians and established a deep connection with many residents throughout the Westside, Executive & Artistic Director Josephine Moerschel said in an interview Monday.
To celebrate all of the successes and thank the community for its role in their growth, Elemental Music will hold a Virtual 10th Anniversary Celebration on Facebook Live this Saturday at 6 p.m. that’ll feature a number of “live” performances and special activities. And Moerschel invites all of Santa Monica to join in on the fun.
“We have only been able to grow from serving 25 to that first year to now having serviced over 2,000 students in our programs because of our incredible teachers as well as the incredible support that we receive from our community and donor base, who all make it possible for us to do the work that we do,” Moerschel said, detailing how the program was started by a Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District teacher and has continued to receive help from SMMUSD’s educators throughout the decade. “Bit by bit, we started to hear from parents of wind players and singers because we found there was a huge interest in the community to find quality, after-school ensemble programs that kept kids excited about making music with one another.”
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve expanded to also have a wind ensemble for elementary school kids, an elemental band, choral program and several levels of guitar ensembles for classical guitar,” along with a full orchestra program for middle-schoolers, Moerschel added. “So, it has become a really unique experience for kids.”
Two values that Elemental Music always tries to promote through its programs are community and grit, “but everything always centers back to the high-quality instruction because that’s always been a very, very key part of what we do,” Moerschel said.
And while Saturday’s celebration is mainly to honor those instructors, donors and community members who have made the nonprofit’s work possible, the Facebook Live party also aims to recognize the hardworking amateur musicians who are moving on without a traditional graduation ceremony.
“We’ve got a lovely tribute that (we’ve) put together for our graduating eighth graders from the middle school program, because I know that many — not only our — eighth graders and high school and college seniors around the country are mourning the loss of having those milestones to celebrate,” Moerschel said. “So we wanted to put a little something together to commemorate their successes over the last few years, because quite a few of them have been with us since they were in our elementary programs.”
More information on the upcoming anniversary party can be found by visiting facebook.com/ElementalMusicSM/live, according to event organizers. A Facebook account is not needed to stream the celebration activities.
brennon@smdp.com
