Musica Viva brings quality music education to three disadvantaged schools in South Australia. The company is redressing the problem of poor access to quality music education for disadvantaged primary schools in South Australia with the launch of its SA Ambassador Program.

Using funds generously donated to Musica Viva by private donors and local businesses, the SA Ambassador Program will bring quality music education to disadvantaged school communities in SA, starting in 2009 with Le Fevre Peninsula Primary School, Christies Beach Primary School, and O’Sullivan Beach School.

By the end of 2009, Musica Viva will have performed a total of 38 concerts to approximately 5,984 students in South Australia. One third of these schools are classified as disadvantaged. Across Australia, Musica Viva’s education programs reach approx 350,000 children every year, at every socio-economic level.

Unique brass quartet and SA Ambassador Program musicians, The Brasshoppers, will perform magical live music to students at the first three schools on Monday 7 December 2009. For many of the participating students this experience will be a first – many having never experienced live music by professional musicians, or seen such instruments played and songs performed.

Teachers from the first three schools have already attended the SA Ambassador Program professional training course and were unanimous in their praise. “The program is fantastic and very user friendly! I can’t wait to do the activities with my kids. Thank you so much!”

Today’s primary school children often miss out on quality music education at school. In Australia, 88% of state public schools have no structured music education program and only one in four primary schools have a specialist music teacher.

National and international research continues to show positive benefits of an arts-rich education on school children, and it is increasingly reported that school children from disadvantaged communities gain the most benefit from participation in the creative arts.

The pivotal American study – Champions of Change (1999) - is still pertinent today. Its findings demonstrated that students from low socio-economic backgrounds with a high level of involvement in the arts outperformed their peers from similar socio-economic backgrounds with low arts involvement.

“In the low socio-economic status group, significant differences were found between the academic achievement of high arts-involved students and low arts-involved students as measured by standardized tests and reading proficiency measures.”