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BMTL In the News

TEACHER BELIEVES BRINGING MUSIC TO LIFE CAN BE AN ‘EQUALIZER’

March 18, 2022

By NELSON GARCIA, 9News

Danna Orocsco, a freshman at Jefferson Junior/Senior High School in Edgewater, knows what it’s like to try to learn music with few resources. 

“I’m from Colombia,” Danna said. “I was born and raised there, and we only learn about music theory because there’s really not enough money to provide everybody with an instrument.”

Jefferson and teacher Nathan Prismon don’t have the money either.

“It would be impossible, not even close,” Prismon said. 

Yet, in Prismon’s orchestra class, Danna has her own instrument to play and so do her classmates, even though Prismon said about 90% of the students who attend the school live in poverty.

“We have a lot of students who can’t afford their own instruments. So, it’s helped us build our own instrument library,” Prismon said. “We could get instruments out to those students who can’t afford them. It’s really honestly life or death for us.”

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LEARNING AN INSTRUMENT CAN HELP STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH

March 14, 2022

By NELSON GARCIA, 9News

To Aurora Academy Charter School teacher Mike Horsford, playing together means learning together.

“Certain activities, music included, build up structures in your brain in a different way than any other kind of mental activity,” Horsford said.

Horsford said learning to read music has helped some students who are also learning to read and speak English at Aurora Academy, a K-8 school.

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‘IT’S BEEN A LIFESAVER’: COLORADO MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DRIVE REMOVING BARRIERS FOR KIDS

March 13, 2022

By JAMES BARTOLO, The Pueblo Chieftain

Lyman Bushkovski, instrumental music teacher at Pueblo Academy of Arts, plays a violin the school received from the Bringing Music to Life Instrument Drive.
photo: Dalton Sprouse/Pueblo School District 60.

The cost of renting or buying a quality instrument can be a barrier to Pueblo kids interested in music.

To help put instruments in the hands of kids who want but can’t afford them, the Colorado Bringing Music to Life Instrument Drive is accepting donations of gently used instruments through March 20.

Read the full article here.