Music in Schools

For grades K-5

  • Sound Impact: Sound Impact’s newest Time Travel through Music program unlocks the Superpowers of Music. For 45 minutes, students will cross multiple centuries and traverse cultural boundaries, unveiling the awe-inspiring abilities of music. The Sound Impact string quartet will showcase music’s superpowers through live performance, enchanting narrative, expressive movements, cutting-edge digital vignettes, and engaging interactive activities. Get ready to experience the limitless Superpowers of Music for all of us! Up, up, and away!

For grades 6-12

  • Brass Over Bridges Performances: Music at Kohl Mansion (MAKM) is excited to bring Brass Over Bridges to your school! Utilizing MAKM’s theme for the year, “Music is a Superpower!” the brass quintet’s 45-minute presentation shows how music has the power to connect people, allows us to express ourselves, and helps create meaningful experiences in our lives. The quintet will play music from the classical canon, cinema, and pop.
  • Music of Revolution Workshop: Sound Impact’s 45-minute Music of Revolution workshop, geared toward grades 6-12, is an interactive experience that incorporates digital content, music performance, discussion, and creative writing activities to explore music’s role in revolution and the power of our voices to build unity and understanding. Members of the Sound Impact team will visit your school in person to facilitate the workshop and engage with your students.
  • Coaching: Music at Kohl Mansion’s free instrumental and choral coaching program connects San Mateo County middle and high school music programs with professional musicians for sectionals and ensemble rehearsals. We have coaches available to schedule one or more coaching sessions for your ensembles, including cello, choir, double bass, flute, percussion, violin, trumpet, French horn, trombone, bassoon and euphonium.
  • Free Student Tickets: A generous donor makes a limited number of mainstage concert series tickets available for free to students and educators.

For all grades

  • Mainstage Artist Performances: Music at Kohl Mansion’s world-class mainstage concert series artists would love to visit your school! These in-person visits can take whatever format you like – whether it’s a performance, Q&A, masterclass with your students – or any combination thereof.

Contact education@musicatkohl.org for more information about any of these Music-in-Schools Programs.

Sound Impact and MAKM

Sound Impact

Founded in 2013, Sound Impact is a collective of musicians dedicated to connecting, engaging and empowering youth beyond the concert hall through performances and education programs. Its mission is underpinned by the belief that music has the ability to ignite positive social change when employed as a tool for community engagement. Sound Impact reaches over 10,000 young people annually through programs including in-school education concerts, classroom curriculum, interactive workshops, a virtual education series, innovative ukulele training, incarcerated youth residencies, international festivals, and cultural exchange opportunities. Sound Impact is proud to partner with Music at Kohl Mansion to bring innovative music programs to classrooms and families throughout the Bay Area.

Sound Impact: Rebecca Jackson-Picht, violin; Emma Votapek, violin; Tiffany Richardson, viola; Katie Youn, cello

Brass Over Bridges

Based in San Francisco, Brass Over Bridges is an ensemble that understands that music is all about connection. Inspired by the artistic community of the San Francisco Bay Area, Brass Over Bridges seeks to engage audiences with music across barriers of style and artistic discipline. Recipients of the Aspen Music Festival’s “American Brass Quintet Fellowship” and the Cypress String Quartet’s “Cypress Award,” Brass Over Bridges combines the sensitivity and expression of chamber music with the resonance and color of brass instruments.

Brass Over Bridges is passionate about supporting school music programs, through creating performances and innovative workshops designed to educate and inspire young musicians. Members are: trumpeters Joseph Brown and Ari Micich, french hornist Erika Miras, trombonist Esther Armendariz and bass trombonist Will Baker.

Platinum Partner Award

Established during the 2021-22 school year, Music at Kohl Mansion’s (MAKM) Anneke Gaenslen Platinum Partner Award, named for longtime Co-Chair of the Education & Outreach Committee Anneke Gaenslen, recognizes a school or music department’s outstanding participation in MAKM’s Music-in-Schools Program during a given school year. The Platinum Partner Award celebrates educators who invest in the enrichment of students through live educational performances and ongoing coaching of music students by professional Bay Area musicians.

Our 2022-23 Anneke Gaenslen Platinum Partner is Aragon High School, led by music teachers John Chen and Kevin Gallagher.

Past award recipients:
2022-23: Aragon High School, led by John Chen and Kevin Gallagher
2021-22: Borel Middle School, led by Helene Grotans, Nicolas Fraire, and Kate Roseman