It’s a familiar scene to Bonnie Greene: A boy takes a crumpled dollar bill out of his pocket and hands it to her.
That weekly payment is all some low-income families can afford in exchange for lessons and the loan of a violin. Through Music Makers, a program Greene founded to bring music into the lives of low-income children from several of Madison’s neighborhoods, that’s all that is needed.
….Greene also has received instructional help from longtime friend and peer Janet Jensen, a professor of string pedagogy and associate director of the School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Twice a week, Jensen brings UW music students to Centro Hispano to provide lessons for Music Makers students. Jensen said the impact of Music Makers is felt on many levels by children and teachers alike.