Music In Action Journal | Case Studies from the Sector
INTRODUCTION
Buffalo String Works (BSW) is an organization like no other for which I have worked. It is a pure example of the good that music and human empathy can bring into people’s lives when they operate together and authentically. According to Yuki Numata Resnick, BSW Executive Director and Co-Founder, everything began in March 2014 with a chamber concert at the P.S. 45 International School in West Side, Buffalo. When Yuki was performing Brahms’s Piano Quintet in C minor with her colleagues, the performers asked the students about what that music meant to them. One of the students said, ¨I think it means I love you so much¨. After that, students were filled in joy and excitement and could not wait to play the instruments.
BSW officially opened its doors in September 2014 in response to a clear issue: music education was not accessible to most of the youth in Buffalo, New York. The problem was not only that the school system did not offer music education as part of the curriculum, but also the economic situations of lots of families just would not allow them to make this possible. According to Census Reporter, in 2019, 43% of Buffalo children under 18 years old lived below the poverty line.
Buffalo String Works also operates in a very interesting cultural context. From 2000-2010, Buffalo experienced a foreign-born population increase of 33%, with Indian and Burmese families making up a majority of this list. To give an example of how that looks like these days, the current student population at P.S. 45 (the school were the recital took place in 2014) represents at least 70 countries and 40 languages spoken, including Arabic, Somali, Burmese, Karen, and Nepali.
Learn more at Buffalo String Works
Authored by :
Diana Ramírez-Rosales (GLP 2021 | USA)
