About Musicopia
Mission
Musicopia's mission is to inspire, educate, and connect children, youth, and their extended communities through collaborative music and dance experiences.
Vision
Musicopia envisions empowering the next generation through equitable access to the arts: fostering lifelong creative expression, confidence, collaboration, multicultural understanding, and joy.
Values
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Provide pathways to the arts for the students we serve
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Inspire learning through the arts
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Champion cultural and human diversity
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Promote the development of self-efficacy
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Create environments of mutual respect, well-being, and belonging
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Support students in finding safe spaces for self-expression
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Enrich the communities in which our students live and thrive
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Since its founding fifty years ago, Musicopia has maintained a steadfast commitment to creating access to the arts for all, regardless of circumstance. Musicopia is committed to fostering and maintaining an environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion are fully integrated for the benefit of our staff, Teaching Artists, volunteers, and the students and families served. We strive to ensure that all individuals within our organizations are treated fairly and equally and include all voices and viewpoints.
Founded by a string quartet in 1974, Musicopia is a leader in revitalizing school music programs in the Greater Philadelphia area, providing equitable access to music programming.
Through a teaching roster of professional ensembles and solo musicians of the highest caliber, Musicopia helps Pre-K-12th grade students explore and develop their musical interests, learn to play an instrument, and perform alongside enthusiastic peers through in-school assemblies, workshops, and residencies, and long-term ensembles including the after-school Musicopia String Orchestras and Musicopia Drumlines. Fostering Artistry and Musical Excellence (FAME) instruction provides year-round musical instrument and ensemble coaching. With a goal to inspire a love of music within children that will last a lifetime, Musicopia’s programs represent musical styles and traditions from around the world including classical, jazz, Latin, African, Brazilian, Middle Eastern, opera, hip hop, rock/pop and others.
Musicopia’s Gift of Music instrument donation program also collects, repairs and places donated musical instruments with those students who need them the most.
Read more about our reach last school year. ​
In 2012, Musicopia formed a dynamic partnership with Musicopia Dance, formerly Dancing Classrooms Philly, to provide both organizations with a more efficient infrastructure while advancing their missions and community impact. Both are committed to working with children and schools that lack adequate arts education programs and are cut off from the region’s rich cultural life. In 2026, Musicopia and Musicopia Dance merged under the Musicopia name.
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Musicopia is a proud PMAY partner.
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“I can put an equation on the board and I can ask you how does that make you feel? And they’ll tell me right away. But when you ask students to…listen to this music or perform a piece, what emotions are tied to that? And when students begin to wrestle with that they begin to develop that Emotional IQ that some people feel our students are lacking. So when you take the arts out, it definitely negatively impacts their learning… When I worked with Musicopia, when they would come into South Philadelphia High School, I would have to call and say, ‘I don’t have enough money, but please can you come?’ And Musicopia was…like ‘We’ll work with you on the price.’” -- Otis Hackney, Chief Education Officer of the City of Philadelphia - Mayor’s Office
Musicopia Dance
To learn more about our partnership, please enjoy this film.
Musicopia Founders
Barbara Murray, Welthie Fitzgerald, Gael Abbasi with Former Executive Director Denise Kinney. Not pictured: Founder Hazel Mickley