A nonprofit music studio in Arlington is hoping to get more donors and supporters to tune in, so it can expand a program that offers free piano lessons to low-income students into Fairfax County.
Piano and More currently has two participants from Fairfax and three from Arlington in its Play It Forward program, which provides free lessons, keyboards and other resources to students at Title I schools.
While the program is primarily supported by funds from paid at-home lessons offered in Arlington, Falls Church and McLean, the nonprofit accepts donations and recently began seeking sponsorships from local businesses and schools to support its expansion plans.
As reported last month by FFXnow’s sister site ARLnow, Piano and More has secured funding so far from partner schools in Arlington Public Schools, the Arlington Community Foundation and the Richmond-based early childhood education group Robins Foundation. However, it’s still looking to find traction in Fairfax County.
“We’ve only been able to really budget small numbers up to five [students] and we do want to expand,” Piano and More founder, executive director and board president Nicole Kovar told FFXnow. “It’s been a very fruitful program. We see a lot of great results from not only the students, but the teachers at the schools.”
A piano teacher for more than 15 years now, Kovar originally started Piano and More in 2018 as a way to give private lessons, building up a roster of students and gradually bringing on more teachers to help.
At an end-of-year recital for the students, though, she was struck by the homogeneity of the audience and wondered whether piano had become an “instrument of privilege.” A little research confirmed that piano or keyboard classes are rarely offered by local public schools, so the only way kids can learn how to play is if they have access at home or through a private instructor.
“You have to have the money to not only pay for lessons, but to also pay for the instrument because it’s very big and can be an expensive investment,” Kovar said. “If you also live in a smaller apartment, then maybe it’s too big … There’s definitely a lot of obstacles you have to overcome. So, I wanted to change that.”
Inspired by that “wake-up call,” Kovar and the rest of the Piano and More team introduced the Play It Forward program in 2019.
The program partners with elementary school teachers and music coordinators, who identify and write recommendations for potentially interested students. Participants then receive lessons at their school and are given a keyboard and music books so they can practice at home.
While there’s no cost, Play It Forward students are expected to regularly practice, demonstrate progress and perform at a recital.
Kovar says the goal is to continue teaching students as long as they remain committed. About 10 students have joined the program and subsequently moved on, but the two Fairfax students, who both attended Westlawn Elementary School in West Falls Church, are still taking lessons even after graduating to middle school.
Since Piano and More hasn’t managed to partner with the students’ middle school yet, they’re now obtaining lessons “at a separate location,” according to Kovar.
“We’re still continuing their private education because we didn’t want to give up on them,” she said. “We had already invested so much and they were really learning a lot, and now they’re playing classical pieces and really advancing. So, we just kind of had to adjust with that.”
In addition to raising additional funds, Kovar says finding school staff or volunteers who can help Piano and More build relationships and coordinate with different schools will be key to expanding the Play It Forward program.
While piano is her personal focus, Kovar believes playing any instrument is valuable not just as an artistic skill, but as a way to teach discipline, express emotion and improve mental health.
“There’s no public funding education for piano and I’m starting to wonder if it will be, an instrument of privilege or an instrument of a few in the next couple decades,” she said. “So, I just wanted to bring awareness to that and really spearhead that we should keep piano important in children’s lives.”
