On June 22, 2007 Marlee, Alejandro and Jobeidy couldn’t have cared less about each other. Yet, ten days later Alejandro had helped Marlee to become more fluent in Spanish and to dance salsa. Marlee had taught Alejandro how to sight read, be part of an orchestra and speak some English. Both had taught Jobeidy what a violin looks and sounds like and impressed her with the musical abilities of children “just like her,” as she put it. In return she impressed them with her dignity and enthusiasm despite her tough life in a shantytown of Santo Domingo.

What united these young people from vastly different cultures and backgrounds was the universal language of music. Marlee, a young string player from Norfolk, VA, and Alejandro, a violin student from Santo Domingo, met when they participated in the Traveling Notes Festival 2007 in the Dominican Republic. Jobeidy was in the audience during the free concert they gave at her neighborhood church.

For all three of them, and all others who partook in the Traveling Notes program, general and abstract terms such as “America”, “the Caribbean”, or “poverty” gained a human face and became something they cared about. Music overcame the barriers of culture, ethnic background, language and social class and created an environment in which they all were able to share with each other and to learn from one another.

Please help us give more children the chance to experience such a constructive, nurturing environment, to open their eyes to the world around them, and to become better musicians and more open-minded human beings in the process. Your donation will allow Traveling Notes to realize its vision of developing fine young musicians with a social conscience and an appreciation for cultural differences.

We invite you to donate on-line via the secure link to the left or to send a check made out to Traveling Notes to the following address:

Hampton Roads Chamber Players
1420 W. Princess Anne Rd.
Norfolk, VA 23507

Donations are tax deductible.

Many thanks,

Ellen J. Brager
Executive Director

If you want to designate your donation to be used specifically towards a scholarship you can do so by filling out the “Optional Designation of Funds” box during the check-out process.  You may specify whether you want the scholarship to benefit a group of students or you may provide the name of a specific student you would like to support. Ten percent of scholarship donations will be used to cover administrative costs.