The Brooklyn Porch Music Program provides high-quality and free music education to middle and high school youth from Title I schools in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. Through intensive mentorship with local musicians, original composition workshops, large group ensemble rehearsals, and performances in interactive multi-generational community concerts, participants develop their skills as creative artists and explore the role of music in community building.
Our program
With a focus on creativity, storytelling, collective improvisation, and music composition, Brooklyn Porch Music encourages students to think independently and try new forms of expression. Participating youth write songs and stories about their neighborhood and perform them alongside their mentors and peers in underutilized public spaces – subway stations, public plazas, laundromats, and the local Indian restaurant where we rehearse. Sign up for our program here!
- Years of Community Programming: 4 years
- Current Teaching Artists: 10
- Youth Who Have Received Free Music Programming: 200
- Total Hours of Instruction: 1600 per season
Latest News
- Notes in the Brooklyn Night: Music for a Cause
Join us for an exciting fundraiser supporting Brooklyn Porch Music! Notes in the Brooklyn Night: Music for a Cause is an exclusive evening of music, poetry, food and drinks, PLUS a silent auction of curated gifts. Step into the Brooklyn night for an evening that is low-key luxe and just the right kind of secret, as we celebrate the expressive outlet that Brooklyn Porch Music brings to youth in the heart of… Read more: Notes in the Brooklyn Night: Music for a Cause - Thank you sponsors
We are thrilled to display our sponsors for our 2025 program in this beautiful banner! Thank you to NYC Cultural Affairs, Arts & Democracy, Flatbush Development Corporation, Anna Milat-Meyer (Corcoran), and Operation Gig! - Free Concert June 22 at Newkirk Ave
Join Brooklyn Porch Music in uplifting the next generation of young artists at this critical time for arts education! Watch the Brooklyn Porch Music band concert at Newkirk Plaza, Sunday June 22 at 5:00 PM - Free Concert June 15, 2025
FREE full ensemble concert at Avenue C Plaza Join us at 2 PM on Sunday, June 15, at Avenue C Plaza, 557 McDonald Ave to celebrate creativity in our community! Featuring music and dance from Brooklyn Porch Music’s The Multigenerational Playing for the Light Big Band, Bangladesh Instituteof Performing Arts (BIPA), Students from the Tomas Rodriguez Guitar Studio, Singing Winds Dance with Ballet Folklórico Mariposas, Shapla and Azerbaijani Dance, and… Read more: Free Concert June 15, 2025 - We Are Brooklyn Porch Music!
For 2024 and beyond, we are thrilled to announce our new name, Brooklyn Porch Music! In the fall of 2023, a dedicated team of our staff and parents came together to brainstorm a new name and create an amazing new outline that describes what we do. As a result, we have a new name, new website and new descriptions of our work. We are so grateful for all who participated,… Read more: We Are Brooklyn Porch Music!
Donate
Brooklyn Porch Music is operated by Jazz Passengers Music Projects, Inc., a New York not-for-profit organization (NYS Charities Registration Number 47-67-89) with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS in (EIN 45-556-8813). All donations to our program are tax deductible. Donations help compensate professional musicians to mentor and teach, provide instruments to those who have few resources for their own, to rent space for our program to operate, to provide equipment for our joyous public performances, and much more. Donate to our Youth Program today!
Bk PoRCH MUSIC Origin story
It was March 2020, two weeks into the complete shutdown of New York City and veteran jazz musician and educator Roy Nathanson had an idea. “I was just so shaken by the enormity of the situation, the kind of web of fear,” he remembered. “My tours were all canceled, people I knew were getting sick, the streets were so eerie. I heard about the Italians singing out on their balconies in Italy and I just wanted to play something beautiful for the neighborhood and myself.” He went out with his alto saxophone onto his second floor balcony in Ditmas Park and played one song: Amazing Grace. “I thought, play one song exactly at 5 pm and walk back inside.” But what would happen next stunned him, as the community began to gather outside his house everyday at 5PM, hungry for ritual, for community, and for hope.
