As a student, musician, award-winning artist, mentor, and soccer fanatic, I attribute a great deal of my success in the classroom to all the stuff I was doing outside the traditional classroom—my real classroom is my life. I was inspired by something Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray wrote. “What is often called exceptional ability is nothing more than persistent endeavor.” That’s just it, most if not all, of my accomplishments in the classroom heavily relied on my life beyond a desk—my persistent endeavors. I named my charitable foundation Persistent Endeavors Foundation, Inc. because I want young people to realize how important it is to have a life and interest beyond the traditional classroom. But, the reality is extracurricular and enrichment activities can be expensive. Coaches, equipment, and events can add up to lots of money, making it difficult to know what you’re interested in. Also, there are barriers, real obstacles that amount to significant disadvantages for many.

I have been blessed with access to amazing opportunities. I want to share what I know, assist others in making the most of what’s available, and have a meaningful impact on my community. Many societal challenges are systemic in nature, thwart economic mobility, involve racial inequality, and require imagining and building a different future. I want to begin to build the future world we want to live in now.

One problem I’m addressing is access to music education & the lack of diversity in American orchestras. I never noticed this issue in classical music or Orchestras, because I was in a diverse community so close to NYC. After COVID-19, I began to notice the lack of brown faces in orchestra. According to Save the Music Foundation, ~7k schools across the U.S. don’t offer/can’t hold music programs. Many of these schools are in predominantly Black, immigrant, & low-income neighborhoods, lowering the supply of Black musicians to future orchestras. 

The American classical music tradition is predominantly Eurocentric, drawing heavily from the harmonic language of Brahms and Wagner. I learned about blatant racism and exclusivity in the Western Classical Music tradition. A 2014 study showed <2% of musicians in U.S. orchestras are Black, and 4.3% of conductors are, while composers remain mostly white. When I asked students, many felt orchestras were not for them.

Further, there is tremendous cognitive developmental benefit in exposing children to the Arts and Music, especially before age 7. In a study comparing musicians with nonmusicians, musicians had a higher IQ than nonmusicians by ~7.5 points. Further, musicians were found to have a larger bridge across the two hemispheres of the brain. Overall, it is shown that music enhances the cognitive capacity of those who participate in it.

In the summer of 2023, I selected 5 Black-identifying students (ages 5, 6, 10, & 12½),  beginner through intermediate level on violin for 5 weeks (one meeting/week). Each session consisted of working on their set-up, warm-up, rhythm, and note reading, and an age-appropriate history lesson/discussion. I used recourses such as Music By Black Composers by The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation and YouTube videos about Black musicians to further engage with my mentees. My objective was to encourage them by introducing them to musicians and composers who look like them. Overall, it was a time to learn important history, play together, and set goals for themselves. My mentoring ideology was to approach mentees as a friend and role models. I wanted them to be comfortable expressing themselves through music, inspired to play, and able to make space for themselves in classical music. I am exposing Black children to more opportunities in music beyond music production or stereotypically Black music and I am hoping to open the often closed-off or unwelcoming world of classical music. 

Lastly, I don’t intend to be a music major or a music educator, which makes my perspective unique. I simply want to expand the horizons for Black and brown youth by igniting and supporting their desire to play, patronize, write, or otherwise engage with classical music. Refer to the videos attached for more info.

I’m blown away by the response people have had to my idea. I landed on the cover of the Annual Kids Issue of Delaware Today with an article about my program. Professor Mark Camphouse, a music educator from George Mason University, dedicates a page to my program in his book, available Jan 2024, juxtaposed with the page dedicated to the illustrious career of the late African-American concert pianist Andre Watts. 

People are receptive to my approach because of 1) the complexity of the problem, 2) the exponential benefit of tackling it now, 3) the simplicity of my solution to engage young people to help other young people, 4) it is not music lessons, and 5) I’m not a music major. 

Here is the plan:

• Work on getting kids interested and keeping them engaged (supply side) by engaging local elementary and middle schools.
• Face the demographics head-on by bringing in new patrons and building a diverse audience (demand side).
• Recruit and train mentors and grow the team (enroll staff). 
• Build a community/movement (scale).
• Build awareness of contributions made by Black and brown composers and musicians in history (programming). 
• Partner with schools, foundations, and agencies to address this societal challenge (collaboration). 
• Spotlight young POC musicians in an interview/live (marketing and social).
• Develop a keynote or talk I can do to enlist donors and supporters (fundraising).

Parents observed an increase in their child's confidence and at home playing time during and after the program. Here is what they said:

"I love playing the violin, but I really love playing the violin with you, Marie." ~J.P.

"Our daughter loved her time with Marie, as she effortlessly combined caring and playing with learning. She teaches with an instinctive ease, all the while inspiring our child to want to do even more." ~Steve & Lauren

"I would pick the girls up, and they would literally not be able to stop talking for 30 minutes. They couldn't even wait to get in the car. Both girls expressed joy as it was something they could relate to. Sometimes, you learn things because somebody told you to. But this was stuff that they cared about. So, I just thought this was a phenomenal experience." ~Andrea

"Marie was amazing, and Jasmine absolutely loved their sessions together! Excited to see what your brilliant, talented, generous-spirited daughter does next! Keep shining and fearlessly doing your thing, Marie!" ~Amy

Friends expressed interest in my program, and plan to implement The Crescendo Lab model in their area. Because of this, I'm creating a repeatable model to expand the impact of my program. 
I also received great feedback from a retired college educator and the CEO of DE symphony orchestra and am working with them to expand my program's reach and possibilities.