Atlanta Metro Low-Income Youth to Reap the Benefits

Investing early in youth in underserved communities is a practice of The Atlanta Music Project (AMP). Recently, The Abraham J. and Phyllis Katz Foundation, a family foundation with a special focus on organizations that provide access to music and performance, recently contributed $40,000 to assist the AMP in achieving its mission. This is the AMP’s largest donation to date.

Founded in February 2010, and inspired by El Sistema (‘The System’), Venezuela’s globally-acclaimed youth orchestra program, the AMP offers some of Metropolitan Atlanta’s poorest youth, an option: To Learn and Perform orchestral and choral music as a Vehicle for Social Change.

Led by Co-founder, Executive Director and Canadian-born bassoonist Dantes Rameau, who hails from the New England Conservatory, Yale University School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University, and who America Online (AOL Inc.) acknowledged as one of “tomorrow’s groundbreakers, visionaries and individuals with a creative spark to ignite the next generation of culture shapers and influencers”, AMP believes in the power of the arts to instill excellence. Representatives from the Katz Foundation learned that the El Sistema program had a new Atlanta spinoff, and encouraged the AMP to apply for a grant.

“The Atlanta Music Project is extremely grateful to the Abraham J. and Phyllis Katz Foundation for their generous support of our music for social change programs,” says Rameau. “Their gift enables us to demonstrate a successful pilot year program, setting the building blocks for many more Atlanta Music Project sites.”

“We are honored to have the Atlanta Music Project as part of our giving portfolio,” said Deva Hirsch, executive director of the Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation. “Atlanta is very fortunate that co-founder Al Meyers encouraged Dantes Rameau to come to our city. Dantes is incredibly inspirational, not only to the students with whom he works, but also to all of us who have an appreciation for cultivating young talent.”

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Contact: Jen Farris, ZDennis Media Group