What's the Musical Mentorship Initiative?
Our Mission
The Musical Mentorship Initiative (MMI) is designed to support local communities while simultaneously allowing college students to develop mentorship skills. MMI is meant to enable students from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to explore instrumental guidance.
Lessons Free of Charge
The Musical Mentorship Initiative strives to be a resource primarily for students who are unable to afford private lessons offered by professional organizations and instructors. We firmly believe that music making should be an activity that anyone can participate in, and to whatever extent they may choose.
Training Mentors
MUSICALMI mentors are current students studying at Bard College Conservatory. In order to become a mentor, conservatory students are required to complete a pedagogical training seminar. This is not only an opportunity for mentees to learn from pre-professional musicians, but also an opportunity for mentors to gain teaching experience!
The Musical Mentorship Initiative (MMI) is a program striving to make music education more accessible. It was founded in 2020 by Bard Conservatory student Aleksandar Vitanov, and is now co-led by Blanche Darr and Lexi Lanni. It is run through the Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) Program at Bard College. MMI does the majority of its outreach by pairing mentors with mentees for free private music lessons.
The Musical Mentorship Initiative focuses on making musical education accessible to every student. However, musical education is not the only benefit that students are going to receive from our initiative. Together with music education there come many other benefits that add to the development of children. Studying music will help with children's overall social development, as achievements on an instrument boost their confidence, and will enable them to establish discipline in their lives from early stages. The expansion of children’s creativity is crucial not only for the arts, but for any situation that requires problem solving abilities, and there is arguably no better way to stimulate children’s creativity than with creating music, either in group settings or as a soloist.
