My Nonprofit Reviews

MusicLink is a wonderful non-profit organization for teachers, as well as for families. I have had many students enrolled in MusicLink over the last decade or more, and have received support through this organization, once in the form of a teacher reimbursement grant for material for kids learning violin in a low income school, once in the form of excellent books of studies for a student who I had been teaching for free while her Mom struggled to find a job.

I continued to teach that same student for free until she graduated high school last year, with a full ride scholarship to an excellent college. She is studying science and psychology, and I am sure will pay it forward many times over.

My grandfather played the cello. He practiced 3 hours every day until he died at 88. He used to play for me, from a high stack of cello concerti, telling me that he was trying to memorize all of them as a thank you to the wonderful teachers who taught him for free at Hull House in Chicago during the first two decades of the 20th Century. He became the first cellist of the North Carolina Symphony while making a living as an accountant for Sears and Roebuck.... He was a good man, and promoted music in his community, along with my grandmother, a pianist who had gone to Curtis (another great organization).

I went through some hard times when my ex-husband and I separated, and paid for violin lessons for my son through that time. But many people helped me, and it made SUCH a difference.

When people's circumstances change, when they know from the beginning that they will work hard but can't afford my usual charge on two public school teachers' salaries, when a child wants to play music and will have to stop because of money..... those are the times that MusicLInk teachers step in, supported by the tireless workers who keep it running.

We are all paying it forward for my grandfather's lessons. And what was given to us. And for all the children and families who need music in their lives.