Because music matters.

Music Mobile

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A third-grade student enjoys trying the instruments during a presentation of the Music Mobile™.

Regretfully, due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we have found that we are unable to present the Music Mobile™ this year.  We will be back as soon as it is safe to visit again.

Every fall, the Showcase House Music Mobile™ starts its fun-filled and educational presentations to third graders in the San Gabriel Valley. Since 1971 Music Mobile™ has put thousands of miles on its odometer to bring the magic of music to nearly 130,000 third graders in local classrooms. Designed and launched by the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, Music Mobile™ has earned local and national awards for originality and educational excellence. Proceeds from the Pasadena Showcase House of Design have funded this highly effective music education and enrichment program since it first rolled out into the community.

“Can Music Mobile™ come over to my school and play?” You bet. And what a play date it is. At each presentation, colorful banners identify the various instruments and their categories. And a “conductor” teaches the students about the symphony orchestra. The program was so popular and effective, PSHA decided to expand its community outreach. In 2005 PSHA contracted with the Pasadena Conservatory of Music that now administers and presents the Music Mobile™ program. PSHA members assist the third graders as they are introduced to the individual instruments and get the hands-on opportunity to touch and try to play the brass, woodwind, percussion and string instruments.

Students come away from the Music Mobile™ experience having been introduced to the wonder of classical music and to the possibility that they could learn to play an instrument too.

PSHA extends the impact of Music Mobile™ by licensing the program to other music-affiliated organizations.

Music Mobile™'s Multi-Generational Impact

In 1971, I was a 3rd grader at Franklin Elementary in Pasadena when Music Mobile™ first rolled onto the scene. They held up the French Horn, then stretched out a 16-foot-long piece of rope and told us that was how much brass tubing wrapped in the horn. Who knew? From that instant, I was hooked. Although I had been playing violin, I knew that someday I would be a French Horn player.

And it happened. I switched to the Horn in 7th grade – and after that music school at Indiana University. Today, I teach band and orchestra in Pasadena schools and play horn professionally. But it all began with that shiny brass horn when Music Mobile™ came to my school and showed all of us little kids the instruments. And a very special one that captured my imagination.

Karen KlagesMusic Specialist at Pasadena Unified School District

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