New Funding Lifts Music Mentoring Program

The Donna E. Shalala MusicReach program, a vital youth music and mentoring program at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, has received a new $1 million grant from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.

The generous new funding will enable MusicReach, in which Frost School students develop proficiency in teaching and community education by mentoring economically disadvantaged youth in Miami-Dade County in music, life and education skills, to expand and stabilize its programming, and better support its mentors and staff. 

“This is a significant milestone giving us foundational, long-term institutional funding for the core part of our program,” said Joseph Burleson, director of MusicReach. “This grant allows us to expand how we serve the community and deepen how we impact kids. It’s very exciting for us.”

The new grant significantly exceeds the Trust’s previous MusicReach award of $600,000. Trust leaders visited the Frost School this spring, when they spoke with two Frost students whose lives have been transformed by MusicReach: outstanding graduate teaching assistant Maria Guglielmina, a new graduate who will become a professor at the University of Texas El Paso; and Benjamin Eisenberg, who has been both mentee and mentor. The encounter left Trust officials moved by MusicReach’s impact and vision.

“They were so taken with what we were doing, and were excited to figure out how they could support us,” says Burleson. 

The grant will cover expenses for MusicReach’s core 2-1 Mentoring Program through 2028. They include four new and 21 ongoing mentor scholarships; cost of living stipends for classical, jazz and outreach graduate teaching assistants; an additional bus for MusicReach’s afterschool mentoring program in Goulds, in South Dade; as well as instruments, equipment, supplies, and staff salaries. 

The 2-1 Program pairs Frost School undergraduate students, or mentors, with one to two aspiring young musicians, or mentees, for intensive weekly lessons on campus. The mentors, who are overseen by Frost School graduate teaching assistants, help their middle and high-school-age mentees to become better musicians, stay in school, and apply for college.

The program has been highly successful; all 2-1 graduates have gone on to college, including to the Frost School; some have received prestigious scholarships such as the Bill Gates Millenium Scholarship and the Posse Foundation Scholarship. Meanwhile, the Frost School mentors and TAs receive scholarships and living stipends, while learning skills as artist educators and to value community service and outreach.

MusicReach’s efforts extend off-campus. The program, which reaches over 1200 students annually, partners with two arts magnet schools, the Arthur & Polly Mays 6-12 Conservatory of the Arts in South Dade, and Miami Arts Studio 6-12 @Zelda Glazer (MAS) in Doral. MusicReach mentors teach at over 15 Miami-Dade schools and community centers, helping make up for the chronic shortage of arts programs in public schools. MusicReach buses students, many from remote areas of sprawling Miami-Dade County, to campus for Afterschool and Summer Institutes, where they learn to play an instrument, perform in an ensemble, and take classes in areas such as music technology and songwriting. Everything from transportation to instruments to snacks is provided for free.

“Our mission is to bring the energy and resources of the Frost School to the community,” says Burleson. “There’s so much power in going into our community and creating something meaningful.”

Eisenberg is a strong example of MusicReach’s power. As a teen, the Miami Beach-raised wind instrumentalist attended the MusicReach summer institute, where a teacher helped him get into MAS; he was in the 2-1 mentee program during his senior year. The experience led Eisenberg to apply to the Frost School, where he became a MusicReach mentor and majored in music therapy. He graduated this spring, and is currently teaching at the MusicReach summer institute.

“It helped me prepare myself for college,” Eisenberg says of MusicReach, where he was inspired by his Frost School mentors and the musical possibilities beyond performing. “It taught me that music is not just playing your instrument.”

Though the scholarship influenced Eisenberg to become a MusicReach mentor, he discovered that he loved teaching. “After the first couple of lessons, I realized I’m having a blast,” he says. “It means a lot to me that I mean a lot to the kids. I’m learning as I teach them; it gives me different ways to approach a concept.” Teaching has helped Eisenberg in his music therapy practicum. “One of the greatest things I’ve gotten from MusicReach is learning how to gain a student or a patient’s trust,” he says.