The Musical Mentorship Initiative Kenya is a Trustee Leader Scholar Project out of Bard College and Conservatory in Annandale-On-Hudson, NY. This student-run project is coordinated by MMI Kenya in partnership with Ghetto Classics, a program that provides music education to 500 children in Korogocho – one of Kenya’s biggest slums that is home to about 300,000 urban poor and over 1000 more children in 9 satellite areas around Nairobi, 1 in Kiambu and 4 in Mombasa. MMIK is run by Bard Conservatory undergraduates Fredrick Otieno ‘28, Aleksandar Vitanov ‘25, Blanche Darr ‘25, and Lexi Lanni ’26.
MMI is dedicated to making music education accessible to all. This program has provided free music lessons in the Hudson Valley through one-on-one lessons, masterclasses, and pedagogy seminars between Bard College students and Hudson Valley children. Through this new venture, we are expanding internationally to Kenya, where MMIK will connect students from some of America’s top conservatories to teach Zoom lessons to Ghetto Classics students.
