An initiative led by the Hamilton Music Collective (HMC) in partnership with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, An Instrument For Every Child (AIFEC) is a visionary music project aimed at providing Hamilton's elementary school children with the opportunity to learn to play an instrument.
The program is modeled on a similar initiative offered in Germany and is based on 'El Sistema', a music program which has dramatically changed the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of children in Venezuela, 90 percent of them from poor socio-economic backgrounds.
Through AIFEC, students in grades 1-4 will learn to play a musical instrument and receive general music education within the school curriculum.
AIFEC will be launched as a pilot project at King George Elementary School in September 2010. The longer-term vision for the program is that ALL children in Hamilton will have the opportunity to be part of AIFEC.
Making music brings happiness - and has a positive effect on a child’s development.
By 2016 close to 1000 inner city elementary school children shall have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. Eventually An Instrument For Every Child shall be available to all of Hamilton’s inner-city elementary school children.
An Instrument For Every Child - Film produced by: www.jedemkind.de
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Cable 14 segment on Jazz in The Hubs - An outreach program in Hamilton's elementary schools.
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Click here to download the ‘An Instrument for Every Child’ brochure.
An Instrument For Every Child is a music education initiative originated in Bochum, Germany in 2003 as a part of the program for the European Culture Capital 2010 in the Ruhr region of Germany. The name of this exceptional program says it all: By 2010, all the 43,000 first graders in the Ruhr region shall be given the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. The program is an addition to existing music education in elementary schools.
The example of the Ruhr region of Germany shows how aesthetic education, the most important resource for passing on our cultural heritage and strengthening the level of commitment to culture, can be systematically expanded upon on a large scale and fortified. Our goal is to bring this successful program to our community and to improve the basic conditions for music education in Hamilton.
