The little school that could: Bahama Village Music Program continues to expand and improve

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

It’s hard to believe but the Bahama Village Music Program, founded as a labor of love by local music teacher Robin Kaplan, is about to enter its 18^th season.

This community music school, which started in a small room on Fort Street now counts among its governing board members alumni who have returned to Key West to give back to a new generation of budding young musicians.

“We now give free music lessons to over 200 students per week,” said BVMP Board President and teacher Larry Baeder. “About 75 percent of them are from disadvantaged homes, and wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford music lessons. We’re even able to provide the instruments they learn on, through donations. But we have students from all walks of life here, which is important. We have some really great success stories.”

Indeed they do.

From its humble beginnings as an all volunteer organization with limited resources and just a handful of students, the BVMP has evolved over the years, and now some 15 student teachers, professional instructors and dedicated volunteers teach students in piano, guitar, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and percussion.

Under the tutelage of Executive Director Kätchen Duncan and erstwhile student/student-teacher and current Program Director Kate Divoll, both of whom Baeder credits as being “the heart of the program,” the school now boasts two choirs, a jazz ensemble, a ukelele orchestra, two strings programs, a “School of Rock” pop group, a steel pan band, a musical theater program, music theory and songwriting classes, and a summer music camp, now in its second year.

For the past four years, the school has also arranged scholarships for a lucky student or two to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston during the summer.

The returning students then teach what they’ve learned to their fellow students at the BVMP.

To help pay for incidentals of the Berklee scholarship trips such as plane fare and accommodations the BVMP holds the “Crooks Second Line,” a New Orleans-style fundraising event named for deceased Key West drummer Richard Crooks, each January.

“We’re actually one of only three Berklee satellite schools in Florida,” said Baeder, whose two children are students at the BVMP. “That means that all of our students are able to study online at Berklee for free.”

At the BVMP’s recent end-of-year recital, which took place May 24 in the garden of the Oldest House Museum on Duval Street, the fruits of all this work were on full display. Dozens of students, aged 6 to 16, showed their stuff in an impressive and entertaining display of musical talent.

“It’s great to see that it’s still going, providing opportunities for children to learn music,” said founder Robin Kaplan, who continues to teach at her own school, The Music Room. “It’s a thriving program. I like to see that they’re keeping the music alive. The original mission was that the alumni would come back and teach the children, and it’s gratifying to see that happening.”