Kids Music Week on OpenAir: young artists and music education programs

(photo: CPR / Michael Hughes)It's Kids Music Week on Colorado Public Radio.

From Sept. 8 to 12, CPR News, CPR Classical, and OpenAir will feature programming that highlights young people who have taken up the art of music and the organizations who provide the opportunity for them to do so.

On OpenAir this week, we'll be re-airing some sessions from our CPR Performance Studio archive that star adolescent musicians and bands. See the full schedule below (each session airs at 6 p.m. MST):

• Monday, Sept. 8:  Residual Kid
• Tuesday, Sept. 9:  The Baltic
• Wednesday, Sept. 10: Sauna
• Thursday, Sept. 11: Swallow Hill contest winner Thomas Martin

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Additionally, we would like to take the opportunity of CPR's Kids Music Week to highlight some local organizations that help to expose Colorado youths to the joys of learning and performing music. 

• Swallow Hill Music School (71 East Yale Avenue, Denver) offers music classes to students of all ages starting at six months old. Class offerings for kids and teens include guitar, piano, percussion, and singing. The School also provides a Scholarship Fund intended to provide access to music education for under-served and low-income youth. 
• Youth on Record is a nonprofit founded by members of Denver hip-hop group The Flobots to provide arts education to Denver Public Schools high school students. The organization recruits professional performers to teach courses ranging from music theory to production to rapping. Aided by a mill-levy passed by Denver voters in 2012, Youth on Record has expanded its reach to several Denver high schools and hundreds of local student musicians.
• Girls Rock Denver is the Colorado branch of the worldwide Girls Rock Camp Alliance, a volunteer organization that seeks to empower young women and girls through music. Attendees (Colorado girls between the ages of 8 to 18) head to a week-long camp program in which they receive instrument instruction, form a band, and write a song which is performed live at the end of the session.
• 303 Choir is a community choir of the Colorado Children's Chorale made up of Denver middle and high school students that celebrates the local music scene. The Choir has backed local musicians like Ian Cooke and performed the material of The Flobots and The Fray.

Know of any other great Colorado organizations promoting music education and performance for young people? Let us know in the comments below!