Trinity Prep student helps kids bring back the music

During one of Erica Chemtob’s many visits to Muni Strings — with walls covered in smooth, cherry wood violins and perfect, distinguished cellos — she noticed a few instruments lying there, broken.

She learned that they were from schools, and that owner Daniel Muni was donating his time to repair them because the schools couldn’t afford to. Her own school, Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, had the same problem. Then she wondered: If her own private school, with all its resources, had this problem, what must it be like for all the public schools out there?

“There are often instruments that go unused because of lack of funds,” Muni said. “I find that very tragic because music is such a gift.”

Erica couldn’t imagine that, either. Her life has been music – she has played the violin since she was 3 years old, spends summers at music camp and has played at Carnegie Hall.

“Being a violinist is integral to her whole identity,” her mom Candace Chemtob said. “It’s so much a part of her life.”

Erica knew she had to find a way to help bring music to more children who wanted it.

String Together

So Erica started String Together, a non-profit that raises funds to repair string instruments for schools in Central Florida, which Muni Strings does for her at a very low cost to keep it free for the school. The non-profit, which the Trinity Prep junior started when she was in ninth grade, also supports her music enrichment program at Jones High School in Orlando, where she teaches violin classes for an hour almost every Friday afternoon and pays for the teacher to attend. She was recently named a distinguished finalist in the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a national contest for community service, for her work with String Together.

Erica has raised more than $4,000 for String Together, and has repaired more than a dozen instruments and donated four instruments and many accessories. She’s received heartwarming letters from the schools she helped, saying that without her, a student wouldn’t have been able to play in a special concert coming up, or at all. At many schools, funds are used to buy the students the instruments because they can’t, but there are no funds to ever keep them up or repair them, Muni said. Some children are playing on steel violin and cello strings from the 1990s, which can be pretty painful if they’re breaking. But they do it because they love music.

“Kids want to play instruments, but they don’t have the resources,” Erica said. “They want to learn.”

For more information about the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, visit spirit.prudential.com

For Muni, this is personal, too. When he was learning to play violin at age 10, his instrument wasn’t set up correctly, and he nearly quit from all the problems it gave him. A simple switch with his teacher and he was playing like nothing could hold him back. He knows the importance of a good instrument, and without that moment his life would’ve been totally different. That’s why it’s essential to him to give back, regardless of the cost.

“We’re into helping out people and bridging the gap between desire and means,” Muni said.

Jones program

While Erica loves working with Muni and hearing about how the new instruments make music programs better, what she loves most about String Together is her music enrichment program at Jones High School. She works on the students’ scales and music from their class and a little on technique about once a week.

“I want to share with people who haven’t been able to get the experiences that I’ve gotten,” Erica said. “I’m always the student, so it’s fun to be able to share what you know with the students.”

And Erica has learned a lot from interacting with the Jones students. She discovered that regardless of life experience, music still feels the same.

“Music really transcends people’s culture, people’s background,” Candace said.

They’re eager to learn, but it’s not always easy for every student to come. Sometimes the whole class of 10 to 12 will show up, sometimes it’s just three or four. But there’s a certain three or four who always come, because they can’t wait to take advantage of the opportunity, and to fulfill their love for music.

“There’s power behind the music,” Erica said. “They’re just starting to learn that … maybe music has something behind it other than the notes that you play.”