When Melissa Elie was in fifth grade at Holmes Elementary School, she attended the musical instrument night at Brooks Middle School. “I attended thinking I wanted to play the flute,” she recalls, “but I couldn’t play the note right. And I almost fainted trying to blow the flute because I was unfamiliar with how to play a wind instrument. I tried the clarinet after that and the people kept telling me I was a natural so I chose the clarinet.”
Melissa continued playing the clarinet and is now graduating from Oak Park and River Forest High School, with music still in her future. But, she says matter-of-factly, “I would not have been able to play at all had it not been for PING! We could not have had afforded it.”
PING! is a not-for-profit local group whose core mission is to provide free musical instruments to Oak Park and River Forest students who otherwise couldn’t afford them.
“I started on a basic plastic clarinet from PING! and when I was a freshman, I turned it in and they gave me a better instrument-a wooden clarinet,” she said. Melissa has been applying for college scholarships, and auditioning, and plans to buy her own clarinet. “My mom knew Joan Winstein, a board member, and she told my mother about PING!” Melissa recalled. PING! also provided scholarships to send Melissa to summer music camp. Melissa’s mother works as a teller in a local bank. Her father lives in Trinidad .
PING! is multi-faceted in its support of music education and Melissa now participates in a mentoring program where high school students instruct middle school students.
“Every other week I give lessons to Luisa Vasquez, a sixth-grader at Brooks,” she says. “I learned through the mentorship program that I really like teaching music, and I hope to continue that as a career.
“Being in PING! opened me to so many things.”
The high school senior is a clarinetist in the OPRF High School Wind Ensemble and the orchestra. She hopes to double major and has been accepted at several top-notch colleges including Vanderbilt University, Sarah Lawrence and the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University .
Her career goals? “I would like to be a history professor at a college and also teach music lessons privately.” Her favorite piece of music is “Concerto for the Clarinet” by Mozart.
Melissa cites “the atmosphere in Oak Park “among the reasons for her success. “My sisters also were very accomplished, and we wanted to do our best for our Mom; we didn’t want to let her down.”
Donna D’Oro Anderson, the president of PING!, notes, “This is the 10th anniversary since the start of our organization and this year alone, 114 students in Oak Park, as well as River Forest, are playing music thanks to PING!” she said.
A special celebration/fundraiser will be held in fall 2008 to commemorate the achievements and the hundreds of musicians who have been helped by the program.
“There really is no program like this,” said Donna. “It is not as if we went online and created something based on another successful group-we hope others will create models based on us.” A website is in the works, pending funding.
PING! was created in 1998, when parents noticed while there was diversity in the classroom, it wasn’t represented in the orchestras and music programs.
“There are so many studies that show the benefit of music and academics, as well as other benefits that lead to success in life; it seemed unfair that not everyone was able to participate in the music program,” said Beth Isaacs, a member of the board. The musical instruments are stored in a special storeroom at Hatch School. Austin Music, a local Oak Park music shop, re-conditions the instruments for a greatly reduced fee.
The group has steadily expanded over its 10-year existence. Originally limited to Oak Park elementary schools, the program expanded four years ago to the high school and, just last year, to River Forest elementary schools.
In addition to providing musical instruments, PING! also has sent 24 middle school students to music camp since 2004.
“We [were] fortunate enough to have found funding to send every applicant, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan is generous in providing a certain number of scholarships each year,” said Isaacs. “A few students enjoyed the summer camp experience so much, they filled out an application to attend another summer.”
PING! works with the schools’ music teachers and has gotten plenty of positive feedback. “Many say they’re glad music is not an elitist thing and is open to all the kids,” said D’Oro Anderson.
Lynn Taylor, a co-chair for the mentoring program and enrichment, credits her daughter with coming up with the concept of the mentoring program between high school students and middle school students. The program has grown to become a status symbol of sorts among high school music students. “It helps the middle school students to interact with an older student who has the same interests. They can see their future and learn what the next step is at the high school. And they also look forward to becoming mentors,” said Taylor. It’s also good, she said, for the high school students to not only experience teaching, but “to see these kids in PING! who don’t have private lessons, or the best musical instruments, or attend special music camps but have a passion for music and ability.”
The PING! program also has several opportunities throughout the year for students to perform, and experience professional musicians. “The look on their family’s faces when they see their PING! student performing is just touching,” said Isaacs. “Their families are so proud of them, and the students feel so good about their accomplishments.”
The progam is not just for the gifted. “Not all of the kids are especially talented or have gifted musical ability, but the PING! program allows every interested and qualifying child a chance to experience it,” said Isaacs.
Stipends for private music lessons have also been funded as well as subsidies for instrument purchase. To make a tax deductible financial or instrument donation, to volunteer, or to learn more about PING!, call 708/524-5830 x7464 or mail Ping.district97@gmail.com.
