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Non-Profit Helping Kids Experience Music In Midst Of Budget Cuts

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Philadelphia's "World Cafe Live" is a popular and profitable music venue but several times a month it turns into a classroom.

School kids from the area attend a performance that is part music lesson, sponsored by the Cafe's non-profit partner "Live Connections."

David Ganeus fancies himself a bit of a singer-songwriter, though he's only in 7th grade, so it was a thrill to collaborate with professional musicians when he and fellow students from Leiby Middle School helped write a song at the finale of a recent Live Connections session.

"For me, I think, if you apply music to mostly your everyday life, you can really succeed in mostly anything," said Ganeus.

Luke O'Reilly
(Keyboard player Luke O'Reilly introduces percussionists Josh Robinson and Alex Shaw to students from Leiby Middle School. Credit: Pat Loeb)

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That same kind of belief in the importance of music is what inspired David Bradley to co-found Live Connections five years ago.
He says as budgets and testing have shrunk music education opportunities in the city, Live Connections role has only become more important.

"There aren't enough opportunities for young people to experience what music can be, in terms of self-expression, in terms of helping them understand multiple points of view and different cultures and Live Connections is really trying to answer that need," Bradley explained.

For more information visit: www.liveconnections.org.

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