WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO! THE MAGIC AND WONDER OF MUSIC

By Andrea Cassutt, Executive Director

Playing music is fun and so much more! At SFYSA, we enjoy connecting with our students and families to support them in their love of jazz, mariachi and orchestra music. Getting to know kids when they first audition, or when they join our Elementary Strings program in the schools, is why we are here and working hard in our community to provide access and music for everyone. Not only are playing an instrument in an ensemble and performing a blast, learning to play an instrument and music education have lots of special and unique benefits.

Music is an amazingly powerful support to our well-being and education in so many ways, including strengthening bonds with others, memory, and reading skills, increasing happiness, reducing stress and depression, as well as other benefits. “Longitudinal studies showed that children who do 14 months of musical training displayed more powerful structural and functional brain changes.

...musical training can enhance verbal memory, spatial reasoning, and literacy skills..

These studies prove that learning a musical instrument increases grey matter volume in various brain regions, It also strengthens the long-range connections between them. Additional research shows that musical training can enhance verbal memory, spatial reasoning, and literacy skills.
 
“Brain scanning studies have found that the anatomical change in musicians' brains is related to the age when training began. It shouldn't be surprising, but learning at a younger age causes the most drastic changes.”
 
See the full article for additional benefits to learning an instrument and playing music!
 
It’s fall and our programs are in full swing. To find out how you can support the work of SFYSA, please click here.

Finally, we invite you to watch this beautiful video interview with Jon Batiste at Aspen Ideas Festival, where Batiste talks about the healing power of music and the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sanai, and offers a beautiful, relaxing piano mediation.