Prior to the pandemic, Musical Mentors Collaborative (MMC) was a small group of volunteer musicians who taught free private lessons to elementary school students in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York. During the pandemic, MMC designed a teaching artist program, and today MMC has grown to serve under-resourced students across the U.S. through homeless shelters, supportive housing networks and low-income Title I schools. Teachers come from orchestras, rock bands, conservatories and corporations.

Matt Siffert, Director of External Affairs, was a touring musician and freelance educator prior to COVID. When his performances were cancelled, he looked for a way to give back and reached out to a number of nonprofits. That’s when his partnership with MMC began.

In his first four years at MMC, Siffert was the Program Director and he helped “shift our lesson infrastructure from being a short-term, pandemic-response package of offering three-months of private lessons to an academic year-long program with consistency and dependability,” he explains. “We are still operating on this academic calendar model, and it offers our students reliability and sustained mentorship over a dependable and more extended period of time.”

Siffert also created and launched MMC’s Summer Sounds program, that allowed for continuing education during the summer months because “education gaps often widen in the summer, and I wanted to make sure our community had continued access to mentorship and enrichment during this time,” he says.

Another initiative Siffert created was MMC’s Community Events program, which provided students with free tickets to concerts and dress rehearsals, access to online masterclasses and Q&As with professional musicians around the world, as well as performance opportunities. “These offerings gave students a sense of belonging in our community and real-world opportunities to get inspired by incredible musicians,” Siffert says.

He also worked diversify the teaching roster at MMC by bringing in professional musicians. Siffert requires that all MMC educators/musicians are well-trained on their instruments, passionate about teaching, and can bring their creative and life perspectives to create compassionate, thriving learning experiences. Working through a variety of channels — job postings, social media, email communication and social networks — MMC always offers access to a mentor whose background and experience meets the needs of the students. Whatever a student is interested in studying, “we’ll go out and find a mentor who specializes in that genre or instrument,” Siffert says. “We never say, ‘Sorry, we can’t accommodate your musical interests.’”

Siffert is a vocal cheerleader for MMC’s work because he believes so strongly in the organization’s mission. “Having spent many years as a working musician, I was able to bring a number of my relationships in the music industry to MMC’s community,” he says. “Music has always offered me a safe space to be myself and I make it a point to both communicate externally and offer programming in a way that brings joy and support to people’s lives. I find this makes other people feel similarly safe and eager to engage. I’m thankful to have so many collaborators in my community that send joy back my way!”

MMC often partners with other nonprofit organizations to help reach communities in need. During the height of the pandemic, MMC launched a collaboration with nationwide Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs), which offer services to youth in the foster care system. A recent expansion and grant support for Colorado’s Jefferson County CASA has made a transformative impact on that community.

Siffert’s contact at Jefferson County’s CASA shared an anecdote about Billy, who entered foster care with four of eight siblings placed in care along side him. Over time, three  siblings were adopted and the remaining five moved out of state with their mother. “Billy was alone and moved from one foster home to another, unable to find stability or a sense of belonging,” the contact said. “In the midst of this uncertainty, Billy was given an opportunity that changed everything — piano lessons, something he had always dreamed of, through MMC. Despite frequent placement changes, he continued to attend his lessons. Music became his constant. It gave him joy, purpose and something that was truly his own. We often say that music can change lives. In Billy’s case, it saved one.”