Each year, hundreds of middle-school children receive music instruction from New York's finest professional musicians and educators.

On Saturdays throughout the school year, New York Pops teaching artists provide free music lessons to students in each of New York City's five boroughs. The lessons are offered as part of the Department of Education's borough-wide band and orchestra program, a voluntary out-of-school-time program for students who wish to study music but whose schools have limited resources. Salute to Music offers these young musicians the opportunity to learn and perform in an interactive group setting. Teaching artists provide lessons in strings, woodwinds and brass. At the end of the year, twenty students are selected to perform on the Carnegie Hall stage with The New York Pops at the orchestra's gala concert.

Students must have at least one year of prior instrumental music experience to participate in the program.

Borough-Wide Band and Orchestra, run by the New York City Department of Education, will hold auditions in October 2012  Full audition and program information can be found by clicking here.
Visit the Staten Island site and the Queens site on the web!

The start date for The New York Pops' Salute to Music program has not yet been announced.  Stay tuned!