The Noel Pointer Foundation connects youth from historically underserved communities citywide with professional music education and performance opportunities, empowering children ages 3 to 18 years old through the transformative power of learning an instrument.
NPF launched in 1995 to honor the memory of Grammy-nominated jazz violinist Noel Pointer, a platinum-selling artist who loved performing in inner city communities and believed strongly that teaching a child a string instrument had the potential to change the entire trajectory of their life. From its early beginnings teaching violin to 18 children at Brooklyn’s Marcus Garvey Elementary School, before long the Foundation expanded across all five boroughs. Today NPF operates music programs across close to 50 Title 1 Schools and daycares, serving 2,000 children each year.
NPF’s on-campus music preparatory academy was launched in 1999, recognizing the absence of accessible and artistically rigorous music programming during out-of-school hours for Brooklyn youth. Year-round programming included Saturday Strings and After School Strings from September through May, and Summer Strings in July and August. NPF Launched the NPF String Players in 2006, an audition-based pre-professional touring ensemble which has since performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center alongside seasoned musicians from Violinist Mark O’Connor and Conductor Ray Chew to Hamilton cast member Jennie Harney-Fleming and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
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