OC's Philharmonic Society helps schools 'Strike Up the Band' with new musical instruments

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (KABC) -- The Philharmonic Society of Orange County is supporting local schools and their music programs.

"Strike Up the Band" is a grant program by the Philharmonic Society that aims to foster the appreciation of music within our community's youth. The group awards the students musical instruments as well as teaching materials as a way to help grow music programs.

Wyatt Newton at La Paz Intermediate School in Mission Viejo was in need of a new French horn.

"On my old French horn certain notes would not come out right," said Newton. "You'd be something like 10 notes off. It was horrible."

Newton's music director Daniel Robbins agreed.

"It had so many leaks he could barely get a sound out of it, so he had a frustrated look on his face pretty regularly," he said.

Katherine Yang is part of the Philharmonic Society, which came in to help.

"I actually heard this term, it was an "endangered instrument" in that it is a less common instrument that students play," said Yang.

The problem: instruments are not cheap and the music program already relies heavily on donations.

"The extras that we get to do the instruments, they take a lot of money to repair and to keep up and we have the uniforms for the kids," said Keira Merkovsky, La Paz music booster's president.

"When you go to buy a French horn and it's almost $4,000, that really cuts into things, but we can thank [the Philharmonic Society] for doing this for us," said Barbara Schulman with the Saddleback Valley School Board.

"Strike Up the Band" has reached musicians all across the county. Yang said this past season alone, the Philharmonic Society has awarded $150,000 in musical instruments and materials across 18 schools in Orange County.

The community showed its gratitude to the society and the school's instrumental music director at the winter concert when the horn made its debut.

"We're really lucky that he has reached out and partnered with outside organizations, and that's why we have the grant that we have today," said La Paz Principal Tiffany Harville.

And the band can already hear the difference.

"The development on him ever since he got the new instrument is completely obvious, and I know he's always enjoying it and it just has helped the whole ensemble," said Robbins.