FISCAL YEAR 2015 ANNUAL REPORT DEAR FRIENDS, We rejoiced many times during our 2014-2015 year with the 44 musically gifted children who have dedicated themselves to a life-enriching journey at Project STEP. Our collective pride grew out of their determination and hard work, extraordinary family support, and generous contributions of staff, teachers, partners, and donors. This truly has been a momentous year for Project STEP. From our selection as one of twelve programs across the country to receive a 2014 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award (NAHYP), to our participation in Governor Charlie Baker’s private inauguration dinner, it has been a year of firsts. Most recently, we were featured on the national PBS news show The NewsHour, which connected us with people from all across the world. These experiences represent a historic highpoint for our organization. We have completed the 3rd year of our 5-year strategic plan and reached financial milestones that enable us to expand the number of students we are serving. Receiving new and multi-year foundation support allowed us to build the infrastructure and governance practices necessary to remain a vibrant, financially secure, and well-managed organization. Exposure to world-class musicians through masterclasses, music camps, performances, and shared space with the Boston Symphony Orchestra provides our students with first- hand examples of who and what they can aspire to be. In 2014-15 we were grateful to receive special attention from valued friends such as cellist Johannes Moser and Project STEP alumni including Tony Rymer, Lev Mamuya, Isabel Espinosa, and Monique Smith. The Triple Helix residency deepened our chamber music program. We present this year’s annual report to highlight just how important your interest and support is to us. Our community has brought Project STEP so very far in the past 33 years, and we are proud to share our accomplishments with you. We hope you will be able to join us at events throughout the next year, where you will witness the ways in which music changes our students’ lives — and they, in turn, change ours. Sincerely, Mary S. Jaffee Dianne Luby Executive Director President, Board of Directors OUR MISSION Project STEP recognizes that certain racial and ethnic minorities are vastly underrepresented in classical music. Our mission is to address this imbalance by identifying musically talented children from underrepresented Boston communities and providing these children with comprehensive music and string instrument instruction. We set the highest standards for our students, provide mentoring and performance opportunities, and create a network of support for our students, their families, and their communities. Core Values (1) We believe that the classical music profession should reflect racial and ethnic diversity. (2) We believe that children, if identified at an early age and immersed in long-term, rigorous music instruction, can flourish as professional classical musicians and as individuals, regardless of their ultimate career choice. (3) We believe that our students can reach their full potential when held to high standards and provided with the support and active engagement of teachers, mentors, family members, and alumni. (4) We believe that music can change lives and that the disciplined study of classical music enhances educational opportunities and opens doors for our students and their communities. PROGRAMS Each year, about four students from FOCUS are selected to continue their musical studies in Project STEP’s core Above - Project STEP alum and current student in the Harvard /New England Conservatory joint degree program, Lev returns to STEP to help program (grades 1-12). Each student receives weekly mentor current students. Mentoring is built into the Project STEP private lessons, theory and/or solfège classes, chamber curriculum as a means to achieve success through positive role models. music, orchestra, summer music camp support, and instruments. In addition, they receive enrichment Project STEP provides a continuum of music instruction opportunities including masterclasses and residencies that begins when we enroll 50-100 five-year-olds from with renowned chamber ensembles, and tickets to the Boston Public School system in our FOCUS Program, dozens of concerts each year. Project STEP is a model for and continues through Grade 12. FOCUS introduces creative youth development. In the course of studying kindergartners from underrepresented ethnicities to the music, young people develop social, creative, problem study of music at an early age, generating enthusiasm solving, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. These and providing a bridge to further study at Boston-area skills are widely transferrable and enable youth to reach music schools. It is also a gateway to the next level of their full potential as musicians, students, and productive Project STEP. members of society. FAMILY ENGAGEMENT By building extensive student and family support systems into the program itself, Project STEP is able to hold students to - and help them reach - high standards of achievement. Incoming families are paired with “buddy” families, which allows older children to mentor incoming children and experienced parents to provide guidance for new parents. Families spend hours together each Saturday in a lounge at Symphony Hall while their children are in class, and all parents are part of the Parents’ Council which meets monthly for ‘parent pulse checks’ and workshops on practical issues related to their children’s music education. That Council elects two representatives to the Board of Directors who serve as full voting members and help shape organizational policies. These parent representatives facilitate communication between parents and staff. At the end of each year, Project STEP hosts a Spring Recital with a fundraising component planned and executed by the Parents’ Council. STEP’s depth of support for parents and families creates an atmosphere of encouragement, ownership, and responsibility. Parents are crucial to our students’ success, and their active involvement is one of STEP’s greatest strengths. “Project STEP gave us something important and rewarding to do. We stuck with it and now my family is part of the lives of other families. Project STEP anchors our lives at home…(and) has been one of the MOST educative experiences in my children’s lives and mine.” - STEP Parent HIGHLIGHTS: TRIPLE HELIX BENEFIT CONCERT- Project STEP and the 2015 SNAPSHOT Triple Helix Piano Trio presented their first joint benefit concert to celebrate the life and legacy of Judith Sandler, The 2014/2015 year was filled with events, concerts, a long-time friend of the Piano Trio. and collaborations: GOVERNOR BAKER INAUGURATION - A group of Project - Three masterclasses with world-class performers STEP students performed for Governor and Mrs. Baker at - Nine workshops with the Triple Helix Piano Trio the private dinner held inauguration night. - National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award MLK DAY – The Project STEP community celebrated the - December 8th NAHYP Celebration life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. This event - Boston Chamber Music Society Workshop included musical performances and a panel discussion - Opus Affair March Charity Winner about the role of race in classical music. - FOCUS Recital FRIENDRAISER– This fundraising event was an exciting - Annual Spring Recital & Parents’ Benefit opportunity for us to spend an evening with new friends, - Senior Recital welcome back long-time supporters, and share a short - Over 80 hours of community service performed by our performance from STEP students. students TUFTS UNIVERSITY COMPOSITION COLLABORATION– PERFORMANCES AT: Massachusetts General Hospital Tufts music composition students worked with STEP Diversity in Neurology luncheon, Classical Cartoon students for months, culminating in musical Haikus being Festival, Horizons for Homeless Children Benefit, composed and performed. Concord Chamber Music Society, Newbury Court, Boston SONATION/APPLE EVENT – STEP student Njioma Children’s Museum, Violence Transformed Fundraiser, Grevious demonstrated new Sonation’s music app, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble concert Cadenza, which revolutionizes the practicing experience. GUESS WHO WENT TO Twelve organizations were selected from a pool of 361. It changed the life of this program, and we took several THE WHITE HOUSE? steps to leverage the prestige of this award in order to best support Project STEP in the future. Most notably, we On June 28, 2014, Project STEP was notified that it had invested in hiring a public relations firm which resulted won a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program in a surge of media placements featuring STEP and our award. First Lady Michelle Obama presented that award students. To date, these media placements number in the to Project STEP student Ajani Boyd and Executive 80s. We are proud that every STEP student was featured Director Mary Jaffee at the White House on November in an article in his/her local neighborhood newspaper 10, 2014. As the signature program of the President’s highlighting the award and that student’s participation in Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, this is the Project STEP. nation’s highest honor for out-of-school arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of Visit our website to see our media publications for this America’s young people. prestigious award. IMPACT A 2014 study by the Center for Collaborative Education