Like any proud parent, Frances Figg of Oak Park marveled at her young musician-daughter’s ability to transform her out-of-tune “squeaking” while practicing at home to an “awesome sound” during a school concert several years ago. But Figg noticed something less harmonious in the orchestral makeup: “I didn’t think the stage was reflective of Oak Park’s diverse community.”
After some research, she found that many students could not afford to rent an instrument to participate in Oak Park School District 97’s excellent music-education programs. So Figg rounded up fellow parents — many with musically inclined children — and approached Ellen Holleman, District 97 music director, to help initiate a pilot program for loaning donated instruments to interested kids from financially challenged families.
In 1998, PING! (Providing Instruments for the Next Generation) was born. It began at Irving School with 10 students. Today, it has evolved into a community-wide program that serves 64 young musicians, grades 4 through 8, in all 10 District 97 schools.
PING! — which consists of a 13-member volunteer board of directors — owns more than 80 high-quality instruments (from violins to tubas), all received as gifts or purchased with funds from grants and donations.
The organization keeps expanding, with plans to award two middle-school students scholarships for summer band or orchestra camp. To assist PING!, the Oak Park-based multigenerational Windy City String Ensemble will present a benefit concert Saturday at Oak Park’s Grace Episcopal Church. The program includes works by Albinoni, Bach, Bizet, Mendelssohn and Rodrigo.
“When my students can use their gifts to help others,” says Windy City’s founder/artistic director Michael L. Hining, “they understand they have the potential to make the world a better place.”
After five years, the program’s impact is palpable. Holleman, who teaches music at Percy Julian Middle School — where a group of PING! recipients has gathered to talk about their musical experiences — stresses the supportive environment and how music “is a form of communication that kids can participate in together.”
She says PING! students are not set apart from their fellow musicians. This arrangement, she believes, creates “a welcoming environment for everyone.”
Uche Anigbogu, 13, a saxophone player at Percy Julian, says she would like to receive a high school music scholarship and finds that her music studies have helped her with “multitasking.” Ten-year-old Tanner Shelton, who plays the snare drum at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, says his hand-eye coordination has improved. And, for 11-year-old Devanta Thomas of Percy Julian school, playing the trumpet calms him down.
Also at Percy Julian, Sujata Borthakur, 10, is attracted to the “graceful” qualities of the violin and links her music studies to her better performance in science class: “I was able to understand sound waves and how sound travels.” And 13-year-old clarinetist Melissa Elie of Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School stresses the importance of daily practice and how music increased her “self-confidence.”
All of the PING! students interviewed are involved in sports activities, from basketball and volleyball to swimming and track. Most incorporate music into, say, dribbling a ball or doing laps in the pool.
While PING! centers on instruments for elementary and middle-school children, it goes to great lengths to ensure that students will have an instrument available to them in high school. PING! volunteers make presentations at all the Oak Park schools, and board member Donna D’Oro mentions how the kids’ “faces light up” when they learn that they are eligible to receive a donated instrument. Now that PING! is better known, the organization frequently receives donations — allowing students to get their first instrument of choice.
PING! receives funds from the Oak Park Area Arts Council; the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation; and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. The Oak Park program is being used as a model for a similar instrument-donation group forming in nearby Forest Park.
Board member Joan Winstein is particularly proud of the renewed involvement of the PING! students’ parents: “It brings parents into the schools, and they’re getting the joy of seeing their kids on stage.”
One such parent is Valerie Hosley. Her 14-year-old daughter, Bridget, was one of the first aspiring musicians to receive an instrument through PING! Now a freshman at Oak Park and River Forest High School, Bridget plays the cello in the concert orchestra.
“I wanted all my kids to be exposed to music,” says Valerie, whose two sons play wind instruments. “But we just couldn’t afford a cello. Now Bridget feels more confident about herself, and I’m at all of her concerts cheering her on and videotaping her performance.”
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The Windy City String Ensemble’s benefit concert for PING! will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Grace Episcopal Church, 924 Lake St., Oak Park. Suggested donation: $10; $5, students/seniors. For more information on PING!, call 708-386-9335.
