CNY nonprofit aims to help kids in need get band instruments and music lessons

When Mark DiGiorgio was a student at Webster Elementary School in Syracuse, he wanted to learn to play the saxophone.
At the time, he said, the city school district lent families instruments for a short periods, then took them back. DiGiorgio remembers how he felt when his father decided the family could not buy a replacement.
“I was embarrassed as a kid to have to tell my music teacher,” he said. “I don’t want any other kids who want to play to have to do that.”
That‘s what inspired DiGiorgio, a project manager for a Syracuse architectural firm and a local event promoter, to launch a new venture: He’s created a nonprofit that will help pay for musical instruments and offer music lessons to students whose families can’t afford them.
He’s doing it by converting his for-profit concert promotion business, GigSmack, into a nonprofit called 727Instrumental. It’s still in the startup stage, but DiGiorgio hopes to have the program running by next summer.
DiGiorgio and GigSmack are best known now as the promoters of the Party in the Square events held each summer in Clinton Square.
He plans to continue those free admission parties, and use proceeds from beverage sales at those and additional events to help finance 727Instrumental. The non-profit is also seeking sponsorships, donations and and state and local grants.
“We’re still working through a lot of things, but we can’t wait until we get to the point where we provide students the instruments of their choice and six months of free music lessons,” DiGiorgio said.
The plan is to provide both school band/orchestra type instruments, as well as those more suitable to rock/pop or other styles.
DiGiorgio is also working to line up music instructors and find locations for the lessons to be held.
The 727Instruments program will be available to students around Central New York, but it has already reached out to form a relationship with the Syracuse City School District.
Rory Edwards, the district’s director of fine arts, began meeting with DiGiorgio in the spring.
The Syracuse schools have a program in place to lend music students instruments at no cost regardless of their financial needs. Those instruments, the kind used in marching band and orchestra, must be returned periodically for cleaning and maintenance.
The district has no existing program for instruments like drum kits, keyboards or electric guitars used in rock/pop style music, Edwards said.
“What Mark is planning will be a great benefit for (the district) and our students,” Edwards said. “It’s the ownership that’s the key, the big thing.”
DiGiorgio agreed the ability of a student to own his or her instrument is important.
“It means when they want to practice or play, whenever or wherever that is, they can have that access,” he said.
That view is also shared by Rebeca Mendez Siquier, a senior at Jamesville-DeWitt High School who was this week named one of the 23 recipients of the 2024 Best and Brightest Awards sponsored by Syracuse.com.
She won the award based in part for her participation in music at J-D, along with the Syracuse Youth Orchestra. She has also taught in the children’s guitar program at Syracuse University’s La Casita Cultural Center.
“Having an instrument is super important,” she said. ”It gives the child a chance to express themselves in a way they might not have found otherwise. Every kid has a story to tell, and for some they can tell it through their instrument.”
The requirements to determine who qualifies for the program are still being worked out, DiGiorgio said. But the program will require that students be in good standing and are attending school.
“We know there are kids out there who have an interest in music but are facing obstacles,” he said. “We’re going to be there to help them out.”
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at [email protected], or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.