About this Organization
OrchKids is a year-round, during and after school, music program designed to create social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Baltimore City neighborhoods. Under Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director/OrchKids Founding Director, Marin Alsop’s artistic leadership and direction, OrchKids is the cornerstone of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s community engagement efforts across the city. OrchKids was founded in 2008 with 30 students at one elementary school with seed funding from Marin Alsop and Founding Donors Rheda Becker and Robert E. Meyerhoff.
OrchKids now works with eight schools in Baltimore City, serving over 1,900 children from Pre-K through 12th grade.
In collaboration with several community partners, including Baltimore City Public Schools, OrchKids provides music education, instruments, academic instruction, meals, as well as performance and mentorship opportunities at no cost to students and families. OrchKids is an acknowledged leader in the El Sistema and social-change through music movement throughout the world, and serves as a replicable model for other cities.
