History
Elemental Music celebrates music-making and builds community through exceptional youth education programs. In 2004, a Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) orchestra teacher began a single after-school orchestra designed to help young musicians build on the instruction they received in SMMUSD classes and deepen their study outside of school. Through this, our hope was to give students a deeper musical experience, keeping them playing their instruments through middle and high school. Our original orchestra was so successful that our programs have since expanded to provide high quality, affordable classes for 6 different ensembles for strings, band, guitar, choir, and full orchestra. To this day, we maintain a close connection with SMMUSD despite being a separate nonprofit. 35% of our staff members are employed as full-time music teachers or coaches in SMMUSD music classes, while 3 full-time SMMUSD music directors sit on our Advisory Board.
Specialties
Elemental Music offers after-school music classes in Santa Monica for elementary and middle school students, listed here: *Prelude (3rd-4th grade beginning strings ensemble) *Elemental Strings (3rd-5th grade intermediate and advanced string orchestra) *Academy Philharmonic (middle school full orchestra for advanced strings, woodwind and brass) *Elemental Band (3rd-5th grade concert band for woodwind, brass and percussion) *Elemental Guitar (3rd-8th grade classical guitar ensembles at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels) *Elemental Choir (3rd-5th grade youth choir) *Chamber Music Institute (6th-12th grade instrumentalists)