Help the Silver Creek Organization for the Performing Arts Create a Documentary About Making Music After High School

There needs to be way more information available to high school students about music-making as a lifelong endeavor. It's just too much of a loss to our musical life if 90% of high school musicians never pick up an instrument again when they finish school, regardless if they want to be a professional or not. A Kickstarter campaign led by Paul Trapkus of Silver Creek High School aims to create a documentary that will educate people on ways to make music after graduation:

An enormous amount of individual work goes into the study of music, and teachers work tirelessly to encourage a lifelong learning of music in their students. Yet researchers and music educators estimate that only 10-20% of students are actually continuing their musical studies after high school. Many students quit simply because they aren't aware of the many ways to continue.

This documentary seeks to reveal those ways of continuing musical study after high school by following college students and adults who have done so. In addition to traditional ensembles, we will explore other examples of avocational music-making, such as jam sessions, a cappella groups, chamber music, and laptop orchestras. We intend to show that it is possible and even profoundly enjoyable to stay involved with music without necessarily majoring in it or making a career out of it. We will also examine the skewed value that our society places on music and how that impacts students' decisions about their futures.

We expect to finish the documentary and begin distribution by September. Your contribution will help us impact as many people as possible, especially high school students and teachers.

Here's their promotional video:




Best of luck to Paul Trapkus and his amazing group of students! With just over a week to go, they're just over halfway to their funding goal but still need a fair number of sponsors if their project is to go ahead.