Striking a ’Crescendo’ in after-school arts programming

For Madisyn Jordan, a 10th grade student in Detroit, playing violin and participating in classes at Crescendo Detroit has helped her to feel more comfortable trying new things, approaching new people and expressing herself. She says, through music, "I can play it whenever I am feeling happy, sad or stressed out, and that's where I go to relax myself and everything. She was introduced to Crescendo in 2019 by her cousin, Jordan Harris. Harris is what the Crescendo team refer to as a "legacy student- and has spent every summer with Crescendo for the past 10 years. Crescendo's founder, University of Michigan alum Damien Crutcher, has known Harris' mother since she was a student in a sixth grade band class he taught in 1991. They have stayed in touch through the years and she enrolled her son in Crutcher's new venture when it was founded in 2013. Now, Harris says he enjoys learning about all the different ways the value of music can be applied to his life.