Play On, Philly! - Building a Sustainable and Prosperous Philadelphia

Play On, Philly! is an after-school orchestral music education program inspired by the long-successful El Sistema music education system of Venezuela. Play On, Philly! seeks to prove with a 3-year pilot study that music education can be a force for social change in Philadelphia. The music instruction is delivered by professional teaching artists from the Philadelphia region and students receive opportunities to publicly perform and be inspired by world-class artists. The program seeks to build on each year’s success so that as students become accomplished musicians, they then teach the less-experienced students through our mentorship program. The pilot plans to collect data to show that students in the program improve their self-perceptions; academic motivation, achievement, and school attendance; social-emotional and behavioral development; and complex cognitive processes, all while learning to play and perform a musical instrument.