The Diana & Joel Peterson School of Music’s GRIT programme is providing nearly 500 children in Salt Lake City with free daily music lessons, seeking to bridge longstanding educational disparities through arts and resilience-building initiatives.
The Diana & Joel Peterson School of Music says its GRIT programme is giving nearly 500 children in Salt Lake City access to daily music lessons at no cost, as the nonprofit expands a model it says is aimed at narrowing long-running educational gaps in lower-income schools. The programme, whose name stands for Growth, Resilience, Instinct and Tenacity, operates in three Title I schools and is run in collaboration with the Salt Lake City School District and the Utah State Board of Education, with funding drawn from private donors, foundations, companies and public money.
The school says the initiative is designed to do more than teach technique. Abigail Hills, the programme director, told PRUnderground that music can help students break down difficult problems and work through them step by step. Hills, who began at the school as a viola instructor before moving into GRIT, described the arts as both an emotional outlet and a way of helping young people build resilience. The organisation’s own programme materials say students show academic and personal gains, though those claims are presented by the school itself rather than through independent evaluation.
Teachers and families point to wider effects beyond the music room. Rachel Taft, a violin instructor who has been involved since the programme began, said students were handed instruments at home and taught online during the coronavirus shutdowns, reflecting how the school tried to keep lessons going through the disruption. Parents interviewed by the programme also described performances with the Utah Symphony and Time For Three as meaningful milestones, while saying the classes had helped their children build confidence, discipline and a sense of belonging in a diverse peer group.
The Peterson school says it hopes to extend GRIT to more Title I schools if more funding becomes available. Its website says the school, previously known as Gifted Music School, was established in 2009 and now runs multiple scholarship-based programmes alongside GRIT, with a broader mission of making advanced music training available to a wider range of students. Independent education research has long pointed to links between sustained arts instruction and improved attendance, engagement and social development, although results can vary by programme design and local support.
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