College Launches Year-Round, All-Ages Music Academy
Building on a decade of successful summer youth programming, 蜜桃传媒 launches a year-round community music school designed for every age and skill level. Joanne Kim, who teaches clarinet at 蜜桃传媒 and Santa Barbara City College, directs the 蜜桃传媒 Music Academy (WeMA), which begins its inaugural session Aug. 28 on the Montecito campus.
WeMA builds on the foundation of the 蜜桃传媒 Academy for Young Artists (WAYA), an intensive summer music program established in 2015. 鈥淲eMA takes that foundation and expands it into a year-round community music school for all ages and levels,鈥 Kim said. 鈥淲e want students to be able to enter the program at many different stages 鈥 from a young child discovering music for the first time, to a beginner learning an instrument, to an advanced student or adult continuing their musical journey."
The academy offers private lessons, early childhood music classes involving movement and singing, beginning violin and piano academy courses, musicianship classes and chamber music ensembles.
"The biggest thing I鈥檝e learned is that every student is different," says Kim, a teaching artist with the Santa Barbara Symphony. "Students have different personalities, goals, strengths, and ways of learning, so good teaching means meeting students where they are and helping them move forward.
鈥淐hildren also love chamber music," Kim said. "I saw students become especially excited when they got to play with their friends, rehearse together, and work toward a performance as a group. It reminded me that students don't just want to learn their instrument, they want to make music with other people."
WeMA, which aims to strengthen connections between the college and the surrounding Santa Barbara community, offers scholarship opportunities for its chamber music and advanced performance programs to ensure broad participation.
"My biggest hope is that WeMA becomes a place where people can discover and grow through music at any stage of life," Kim said. "Most of all, I hope students experience the joy of making music with other people."
Registration details and program guides are available at westmont.edu/wema.