Introducing the Newport String Project

The Newport String Project (RI) is a music performance and youth mentoring initiative that aims to facilitate inspiring musical experiences for children and their families. Scheduled to begin in fall 2013, the project will initially offer violin and viola lessons to fifteen to twenty-five students in grades 1-3, in Newport’s most economically challenged areas. By partnering with two local community centers, the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newport County, the project will engage students most in need during the high-risk after-school hours. The program will feature weekly lessons and rehearsals, monthly workshops and student performances, enabling students to expand their self-concepts as leaders and visions for their futures.

The project aims to strengthen the social and cultural fabric of the wider Newport community by inaugurating a free professional chamber music concert series, featuring both classical and traditional music styles in keeping with Newport’s folk heritage. The pilot year will be focussed on growing the organization so that it can support a long-term professional string quartet residency.

Professional violinists EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks and Ealaín McMullin, will lead the program and serve as the primary resident musicians, teaching all classes and performing with guest artists for students, their families and the wider Newport community.