Arrowbear Music Associates

Our organization's main focus is providing scholarships for young musicians to attend a summer music camp. At least 80% of the young musicians who apply to our organization for a scholarship to a summer music camp indicate on their application form that they have never taken private lessons. It is not unusual for the students who do take lessons to tell us that their private teacher reduces their weekly rate to help the student's family afford the cost.

No matter how experienced and effective a school music teacher is in the classroom, a young musician can only progress so far without the individual guidance of a private teacher who is an expert on that particular instrument. Private lessons are one of the crucial keys to mastering a musical instrument. Private lessons make the difference in opening up additional opportunities for young musicians as their mastery on their instrument grows. We wanted to open more doors for young musicians by providing them with private lessons.

In Spring 2022, we added a scholarship program aimed at providing private lessons for Long Beach students whose families cannot afford lessons. We partnered with the Visual & Performing Arts Office of Long Beach Unified to help identify and select young musicians who we can help. One music student at each of the district's middle and K-8 schools was selected to receive private lessons paid for by our organization. During that first round of private lessons, we helped 16 young musicians receive private lessons. We provided this scholarship opportunity again in the Fall of 2022 and continued it into the Spring 2023 semester. We are currently providing private lessons for 16 Long Beach middle school-age musicians and 8 high school-age students to help them improve their skills. We are committed to continuing the scholarship program for the Fall Semester 2024.

Students who participate in the program receive twelve 30-minute lessons during the semester. They are selected for the scholarship by their school music teacher. Each lesson costs approximately $40. The complete set of twelve lessons costs $480 per student per semester.

Testimonials

One thing I would like to tell you is how much your offer helped me and how much it impacted my life. When I first started playing clarinet in sixth grade I loved it. It was all I ever wanted to do. When I first heard about this offer. I almost dropped my clarinet. I remember I raced home as fast as I could and started writing my paragraph to get the lessons, and it paid off, because I did. I started noticing how much better I was getting. Because of your scholarship, I want to go out for the advanced band. Thank you for this fantastic opportunity.       

Rogers Middle School Student

I would like to thank you for sponsoring me to have flute lessons. Janelle was a great teacher. She taught me different scales and the technique of playing the flute. I have become a better musician because of the lessons given to me. Thank you!    

Jefferson Middle School Musician

Because of this scholarship, I was offered the opportunity to take a set number of private lessons with an incredible violinist. She truly woke me up, as I can see that day by day, I am progressing in areas I never imagined I would be able to do in such a short time. Thank you.    

 Lakewood High School Musician