Inside a portable classroom at Trinity Basin Preparatory near Redbird, flutist Caely Rodriguez practices keeping her triplets to time.

She sits in a room full of elementary and middle school flutists and clarinetists who are rehearsing the Christmas piece Paseo Navideno.

“Can I hear you at 12 and take the first ending? First flute” says instructor Laura Kidder as her fingers crisply snap to the tempo in the way only music teachers can.

Caely is one of about 300 students who are a part of the Kim Noltemy Young Musicians Program, which provides free lessons and instruments to students in southern Dallas. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays year-round, the program teaches students at five southern Dallas locations: Ebby Halliday Elementary, Maria Moreno Elementary, Ascher Silberstein Elementary, Trinity Basin Prep Ledbetter campus, and Owenwood Farm & Neighborhood Space.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the program, which has survived the pandemic and provided free arts education as programs across the state have faced budget cuts. Fort Worth ISD cut $1.2 million from its upcoming visual and performing arts budget for the 2024-25 school year, according to the Fort Worth Report.

Ashley Alarcon, the program’s manager of teaching and learning, said cuts to arts education make her feel a greater responsibility for the work being done through the program.

While students are learning their octaves and key signatures, Alarcon said the program’s overarching goal is to “[instill] values that make you an aware citizen.”

“Being a citizen that’s aware in this world requires a sense of humility because you want to see beyond yourself to what other people are doing and embrace their talents,” she said.

Music education has proved to have positive effects on adolescents, like increased confidence, creativity and mental and emotional well-being, according to a 2023 research study from the University of Southern California.

Students in the program learn life lessons, including how to embrace and encourage their neighbors, accept their strengths and weaknesses, and show up on days they don’t want to.

Caely, 11, has been in the Young Musicians program since she was just 6. She’s connected with teachers and new friends, especially clarinetists and fellow flutists.

“You learn that you have to come prepared every day, be quiet while everybody else is playing. It helps in the majority of my classes where you just have to be quiet or be disciplined to bring your stuff and not lose any of it,” she said.

The sixth grader said with the help of Alarcon she’s also learned to overcome one of her biggest challenges.

“I played it over and over again until I wouldn’t stop even if I heard a mistake. After I did that a couple of times, I would write down what I did wrong on the piece, and I would write that while I was playing it. So that’s how I overcame that,” she said.

Mariana Lara, 12, is a seventh grader who’s been playing the violin for two years in the Young Musicians program. She said she’s learned how to be patient with herself through practicing the violin.

These days, she’s been working on her vibrato, a challenging technique in which violinists rock their fingers back and forth to subtly change pitch and add richness to their sound.

“In any music that they give us, if it’s hard or a specific part, I have to really go over it to get it right. Sometimes that’s difficult because it gets frustrating for myself,” she said.

Behind the scenes, more than 25 music teachers champion the students’ growth. One of those educators, Roy Gonzalez, has been teaching trombone and trumpet at the program’s Trinity Basin Prep Ledbetter Campus for the last four years.

Gonzalez previously taught at the college level, but now the Young Musicians program has been a special opportunity to teach students who are starting with a blank slate.

“I like that challenge to help give them the best tools from the ground up,” he said. “So when they go to middle school or high school, they have solid fundamentals. They know how to play and they know how to make a beautiful sound.”

He said the program presents challenges because it serves students of all different skill levels and in mostly group settings. But Gonzalez said he’s seen many young musicians in the program improve rapidly. One of his students, a trumpet player, started three months ago and is already playing two-octave scales.

One of his favorite memories from the program was watching the students perform in a concert last fall. Gonzalez said his students make fun of him for crying often, and it was another occasion when he proved them right.

“It’s one of the biggest improvements I’ve heard in such a short period of time. I feel like things were actually clicking in the teaching, clicking in el sistema and they just sounded so beautiful. I just teared up,” he said.

Those performances are made possible by consistent rehearsals. While dark has fallen outside, students gather inside the main room of the portable at Trinity Basin Prep to rehearse Brahms’ “Tragic Overture.”

The tremolo of the violins fills the room as the wind instruments bellow out. Before long, the rolling thunder of the timpani and slashing chords announce the big finale. As soon as the conductor’s hand falls, the room fills with the rumble of chatting and packing up.

Tomorrow, the students will return to do it all over again.

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.