Programs
FIFTH GRADE MUSIC INFUSION & SUMMER CAMP
5th Grade Music Infusion is a comprehensive effort designed to counter the elimination of 5th grade organized instrumental music from all public school districts in Kitsap County due to grade realignment, emphasis on STEM, and reductions in arts funding. Combined with the negative impact that COVID-19 had on music classes, MDC is acting to rectify this unforunate situation.
MDC Summer Music Camp aims to introduce 100 Kitsap county youth – many from underserved portions of our community – to band and orchestra instruments of their choosing at the optimum time in their childhood. Held in the music facilities at Olympic College over a one week period, accredited instructors work with children to achieve an important jump start before middle school. This ensures that more children choose to participate in music and continue through high school. MDC offers subsidies and reduced lunch programs for qualified students. Instruments are provided free of charge, and qualifying students are gifted instruments from the MDC’s Music In A Box program.
TOUCH & TRY
Touch ‘N Try is a travelling, hands on experience with a dozen common musical instruments that encourages people of all ages to pick up an instrument and make sound. Indicative of the word “Discovery” in our name, the Touch ‘N Try tent sets up in schools, public housing projects, community resource fairs, nonprofit annual festivals, producing moments of wonder wherever it goes. Musical instruments can be gifted on the spot based on family eligibility.
MAKE MUSIC DAY
MDC stages West Sound’s version of Make Music Day featuring professional, semi-professional and amateur performers, open to the public at no cost in Bremerton’s Quincy Square in front of The Roxy Theater. Make Music Day happens every year in towns and cities around the world on or about June 21st. Bring your folding chair and dig sounds from an array of great local=talent who love the opportunity to perform outside to a live audience!
QUINCY SQUARE JAZZ FESTIVAL
Quincy Square Jazz Festival is MDC’s re-introduction of what was once the most widely attended high school stage band festival in the Northwest, held annually at Olympic College from 1960 through 1975. After 50 years on the shelf, MDC is partnering with OC to rebuild this fully-adjudicated regional festival that offers middle- and high-school jazz programs an opportunity to compete on stage in front of a live audience in an impressive venue. The festival honors the incredible legacy of Quincy Jones, who discovered music while growing up in Bremerton’s segregated Sinclair Park housing project and went on to chance the face of popular music around the globe.
“MORE THAN MUSIC” SCHOLARSHIPS
MDC provides scholarship support for teens and young adults to digital sound engineering programs at several studios in West Sound though DocLuvTheKids (www.facebook.com/DocLuvTheKids), a community-building nonprofit led by MDC Board Advisor Julius “Doc” Blackwell. Attendees explore and practice studio skills such as beat creation, mixing and production, videography and graphics, and leave the program with a marketable product they can shop and sell. MDC’s support also provides laptops for students in greater need, which they use for school as well as for music creation.
MUSIC IN A BOX – Instrument Re-Gifting Program
First introduced as a partnership with a Leadership Kitsap Team in 2022, MDC’s year-round instrument drive collects, refurbishes and gifts quality musical instruments to underserved Kitsap youth through school settings. When presented with their shiny new-to-them instrument, students are told by an MDC board member, “This is yours for life.”