By Maya Shah, Co-T/E Life Editor
The Back to Bach project is an international initiative aiming to promote a greater interest in music amongst younger students. Although it is primarily based in the United States, the project also maintains multiple international chapters, some of which are based in China, Poland and Australia.
Junior Isabella Florendo empathized with the project’s message, seeking a way to make it more local.
“It was a great opportunity for me to start a new region. And so I started the Berwyn, Pennsylvania region, because there was no one really here representing it,” said Florendo, who now serves as the chapter’s Regional Director.
Florendo reached out to friends who shared her interest in music, and the chapter grew quickly. Now, the team features eight student musicians, all of whom have individual musical qualifications, whether it be via local competitions or their participation in regional orchestras.
Together, the team brainstorms ideas on how to best promote their message amongst students.
“My team right now is just super fun to work with. They’re really open and they’re really adaptive to anything. They’re open to different ideas, and also offer me very creative ideas as well,” Florendo said.
Back in February, the team worked together to start planning its first in-person community event. After contacting the Easttown Library and advertising to the elementary schools in the district, it planned a bustling agenda filled with informational presentations, interactive quiz questions and performances from the members. Junior and Associate Regional Director Lauren Wu said that the demonstrations are an important teaching lesson for younger students.
“I really like performing because I think that it’s really fun to just share music, but also to inspire the next generation and young kids to see how happy they are when they hear things. Even just informing them about classical music and getting them inspired is cool,” Wu said.
With seven out of eight Back to Bach members being students at Conestoga, the Berwyn chapter of Back to Bach also utilizes community resources to promote its work. This year, the team is hoping to again perform at the ’Stoga library open mic, which it also participated in last year.
Sharing a common community, both at school and in the wider music world, has been a big connecting factor for the group as it aims to grow its initiative.
“We all kind of just knew each other because of ’Stoga music and also (from) classical music. I feel like (the classical music community) is pretty connected in this area,” Wu said.
Despite a lull in productivity over the summer, the group has high hopes for the new school year. It aims to host more events at the public library in order to reach a wider group of kids.
“Personally, I was really excited to share about what I love the most: music,” Florendo said. “I just really wanted to share it with other kids. Hopefully, they will have the same impact and relationship with music as I do.”
Maya Shah can be reached at [email protected].
