WORCESTER, Mass. — This summer, the Worcester Chamber Music Society is helping a group of Worcester kids develop musical talent and important life skills with the Neighborhood Strings program.

Now in its 12th year, the program began with an open-ended question: what would happen if there were a program connecting musicians ready to teach with underserved youth ready to learn?

Ariana Falk helped launch Neighborhood Strings as education director for WCMS, and said the results have been quite impressive. In its first year, the program had 15 students. Now, there are 95.

“There was nothing like this in Worcester, so there was just such an amazing need in the community for a program that provides access to music like this,” Falk said. “It’s not always easy to find affordable arts enrichment programs in cities, and we’re really proud to be one.”

Falk said it’s amazing what can be accomplished during the two-week summer session with enough focus and practice, and through the process of learning music together, other skills like discipline, cooperation, imagination and leadership come naturally.

“We talk a lot about helping children to become citizens and great human beings, as well as having a pathway to being artists and fostering their creativity,” Falk said. “It takes a lot of focus and it’s summertime, but we think an important part of what we’re doing here is just playing a lot every day.”

Students ages 6 to 18 can receive lessons, which are currently taking place at the Main South Community Development Corporation. Contributions from roughly a dozen different organizations and foundations help keep Neighborhood Strings affordable for all families.

“My favorite part about it is we unite together, we have fun together, and we understand the different parts of the music if they’re big, small or hard,” said student Rhemat Oekulah.

According to Falk, every student who has graduated from Neighborhood Strings has gone on to attend college, and a handful of local college students like Zara Nwosu and Jonathan Linnehan-Beeler are always on hand to help out as mentors.

“I can see them being really passionate about it and wanting to work harder, especially when they want to work one-on-one with you,” Nwosu said. “I think that always gets me motivated to get better myself, so I get inspired by the kids every day.”

“It can really be almost like a memory, when I see these kids playing, I’m like, ‘oh, I used to do stuff like that, I used to make those kinds of mistakes,'” Linnehan-Beeler said. “And so to spread my knowledge, it’s just really a joy.”

And even though everyone is playing from the same sheet music and focusing on how they can best work together as a group, Neighborhood Strings program also has room for kids like Genterson Estevez to break from the mold and leave his violin at home if he wants.

During Monday’s lesson, he broke out his electric guitar as the group played ‘Bittersweet Symphony.’

“Whenever I bring my instrument over, let’s say my guitar, what I like about them is if I don’t feel like playing the violin, they say, ‘oh yeah, play that part with the guitar,'” Estevez said. “They actually let you play something that you want to figure out and try to play with the group.”

For more information on Neighborhood Strings, including mentorship opportunities, visit the Worcester Chamber Music Society website.