Community Opus Project

Opus Today

This season marks the 10-year anniversary of the Community Opus Project. Over 100 of its past musicians are now learning in SDYS’ Conservatory programs on weekends in Balboa Park. Opus’ co-founder musicians, who were in third grade in 2010, are now graduating high school and the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) now offers music education to over 20,000 students at 32 schools.

With the continued reinstatement of music education in CVESD, SDYS has shifted ownership of after-school music programs to district-hired music teachers. SDYS now directly supports six after-school music programs led by a CVESD music teacher, in-school instrumental coaching in the classroom at 18 sites during the school day, professional development for all CVESD music teachers, and advocates for quality music education in the Chula Vista community.

The History

San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory (SDYS) believes every student deserves music education for the lifetime of joy it provides and the habits, skills and traits students acquire that will improve their academic, personal and professional lives. Unfortunately, public school budget cuts have made it inaccessible for many students. Determined to use its resources to reverse that trend, in 2010 SDYS adopted a long-term vision of “making music education accessible and affordable for all.” To achieve this goal, it launched the Community Opus Project to demonstrate the positive effects of learning music by providing free afterschool music instruction, engaging the parents, educating the community, and persuading school districts to reinstate district-wide music instruction.

For the pilot program, SDYS partnered with the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which had not provided school-day music instruction for more than 15 years. SDYS began by providing free afterschool instrumental instruction to 65 third-graders at two schools. The positive effects on the students were apparent so quickly that in 2013 CVESD committed to reinstating in-school music instruction so that all of its nearly 30,000 students would be able to learn music.

SDYS, CVESD and other local partners continue to collaborate to make high-quality music instruction available for all students. Students, families and other residents from all parts of Chula Vista will come together around the shared joy of learning, performing and experiencing beautiful music.

For more information about our Opus Project, contact Brianda Felix, Community Program Coordinator, at bfelix@sdys.org.