For low-income kids, the gift of music education truly speaks volumes

For the most part, the students at Rosie’s House music academy are like any other group of ambitious youngsters with a particular passion.

“My friends love trap music and rap, and I don’t,” said 15-year-old Sammara Estrada. “I’m like the black sheep in the group. I’m like, ‘Please turn it off!’ But they still love me.”

Estrada started attending afterschool choir classes at Rosie’s House in the third grade.

She loved to sing, but she wasn’t particularly excited about spending hours practicing unfamiliar music. But her mother thought it would be good for her. And she couldn’t resist the price: 100 percent free for low-income students from across metro Phoenix.

“‘Già sole dal Gange’ was the first classical song I sang,” Estrada said. “I remember I listened to someone singing it on YouTube and I freaked out because I was like, ‘I can’t sing like that.’ ”

Now a sophomore at Xavier College Preparatory, she plans to audition for Juilliard, the famed conservatory in New York City, when she’s a senior.

Social scientists studying income inequality say that increasingly in America, your ZIP code is your destiny. Rosie’s House, founded in 1996 by philanthropist Rosie Schurz, aims to change those odds for the 500 kids it serves each year, whether or not they choose a career in music.

About half of those students come from two ZIP codes in south and west Phoenix. Eighty percent are Hispanic, and 9 percent are African-American.

Offering free tuition means that Rosie’s House depends entirely on contributions to keep its classes going at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Phoenix. And that’s why the academy’s choir program was one of 153 causes supported last year by Season for Sharing, The Arizona Republic’s community fundraising campaign that is marking its 25th year.

The $10,000 grant, of $2.2 million the campaign raised last year, is the largest single funding stream for the choir program, covering about onefifth of its costs, which include professional instruction by a paid staff.

“Especially as a little Hispanic kid who never thought that she had the experience to be able to do something like this, it’s really pushed me to inspire others,” said 15-year-old Juliana Montes, who goes by the nickname Juju. “Being able to come to a community where we’re all basically in the same place financially, and being able to have that bond where we all love music and we’re all here for a reason, really makes you feel connected.”

Montes and Estrada are both in the advanced choir, taught by Kyle Ransom, an elementary-school music teacher and member of the Phoenix Chorale, a Grammy Award-winning professional ensemble.

“I went into it thinking they’re probably just into pop tunes and musicals and all that stuff, but a lot of them actually were really into classical music, so I went with that,” he said.

Last month, Ransom led 50 students in an around-the-world performance featuring works in Chinese, Zulu and Haitian Creole.

“We sing very complicated songs that really test our limits,” Montes said. “It’s definitely difficult, but it’s fun doing it because you get to really experience different cultures.”

Montes also sings with the a cappella choir at her high school, Notre Dame Prep in Scottsdale. She says music is central to her life.

“I’ve always had a problem with ADHD, and music can calm me down so I can actually focus on something,” she said. “And it’s crazy, ’cause I use it all day. As soon as I wake up, I put on music, and it’s the only way I can get ready and actually do stuff.”

Instead of Juilliard, Montes has her eye on Ohio State University, where she hopes to study the science of music and how it affects the brain.

It’s the kind of career goal that advocates say shows arts education should not be considered a luxury.

“We are seeing more and more students come to us that have no music programs in their schools,” said Rosie’s House CEO Becky Bell Ballard. “The recent data from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Arizona Department of Education says that 20 percent more students (from 2015 to 2016) do not have access to arts education in their school.

“Rosie’s House is not able to fill the demand, nor should we ever try to fill that demand, but we are a symbol of what can happen when people invest in high-quality arts education programs.”

Only about one in 10 applicants is accepted into the most popular programs at Rosie’s House, which include a mariachi class, due to popular demand.

Even 5-year-olds have to audition for the introductory choir. “We take the students that show the most aptitude and attitude towards wanting to be here,” Ballard said. “For the youngest students, it’s are they motivated, do they want to be in the interview, does it fit with what else is going on in their life.”

But even if Rosie’s House can’t accept every student, those who come find a community and opportunities, said academy alum Adeyinka Shonaike, 24, who now works there full time as program coordinator. “While I was here, I got to do so much,” she said. “I performed with a bunch of jazz artists downtown. I had my first experience going to the Arizona Jazz Festival (in 2012), which I never would have gotten, ’cause it’s pricey, and we almost got onstage with Jamie Foxx.

“The arts community in Phoenix is actually really strong, and I never knew that before, but they’re really tightknit, and you get so many opportunities coming from different people and different backgrounds. I remember meeting Mrs. Herberger (the philanthropist Billie Jo), and she is not what you would expect. She has pigtails, her hair is wild, she’s so fun. So getting those kinds of experiences and opportunities was really amazing.

“I don’t want to say Rosie’s House saved my life, but it gave me opportunities I wouldn’t have gotten. I remember my last day as a student, I cried my eyes out.”