Why Music Matters

We learn about more than just music in orchestra. This page is about those lessons.

The title of this video says it all - Why Music Matters.

Music in Schools, Changing Lives

Want smarter kids? Teach music, not coding

Learning music really does make students smarter

The letter below was included with a viola as it was donated to our orchestra program:

Two decades of frenzied research has now found that music education grows, hones and permanently improves neural networks like no other activity. Children who undertake formal, ongoing musical education have significantly higher levels of cognitive capacity, specifically in their language acquisition and numerical problem-solving skills. They also continue in education for longer, reverse the cognitive issues related to disadvantage and earn and contribute more on average across their lifetime. A. Collins (2015): http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/music-education-key-to-raising-literacy-and-numeracy-standards-20150605-ghhuw9

"Students in high-quality school music programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the school or school district." Johnson, C. M. & Memmott, J. E. (2007). Examination of relationships between participation in school music programs of differing quality and standardized test results. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54(4), 293-307