MUSIC NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE

The Center for Music National Service (MNS) is a national nonprofit organization that supports music as a strategy for public good. Through direct programs and advocacy, MNS promotes music as an intervention to improve student success, soothe the sick, and strengthen communities of all kinds.

MusicianCorps, MNS’s flagship program, trains and places musicians to serve full-time as teachers and mentors in low-performing public schools, youth centers and other high-need community settings. MusicianCorps uses music to reengage youth in their academic and civic lives, and provide them skills to succeed in the 21st century economy.

In addition to MusicianCorps, MNS organizes Music Service Days to bring musicians, non-musicians, students and parents, as well as corporate and community volunteers together for a day of civic engagement. Volunteers help improve music resources in schools and youth centers by renovating music rooms, constructing instruments, painting murals, and sharing in the power of music through performances and workshops at children's and veterans' hospitals, shelters, retirement and hospice residences and other locations.

ServiceArtist.net is MNS's online learning community of musicians, educators and other practitioners of music as a strategy to reach, teach and heal. Connect with practitioners and believers in the power of music and the arts, share learnings through resources and stories and work together to better lives and strengthen communities through creativity and service.

In 2008, MNS was named “1 of 10 nonprofit innovations that will strengthen U.S. communities” by the Aspen Institute.

To learn more about MNS and MusicianCorps, visit www.musicnationalservice.org