"Let's be a 5-headed monster that shares just one heart," says chamber music instructor Marjorie Gere to her group of second-graders at the Chittick Elementary School in the Mattapan, Massachusetts neighborhood of Boston. "Or a monster with one big head and 5 hearts!" calls out one of the excited members of the string quintet.

Both of these monsters work well as metaphors for how chamber music is played. The members of the Boston Public Quartet including founder and violinist Betsy Hinkle, violinist Marjorie Gere, violist Jason Amos, and cellist Adrienne Taylor, combine their hearts and minds to form a professional performing ensemble and an effective team of teachers who provide free musical instruction to kids in Boston's urban neighborhoods.

The BPQ, as it is known, is the resident ensemble of MusiConnects, a nonprofit organization established in 2007 by Betsy Hinkle to address the lack of music education available to many of Boston's urban youth. "These kids have very few creative outlets," says Hinkle, adding that her music program has become so popular that there are currently 150 students on the waiting list to join the MusiConnects program and learn violin, viola, or cello.

Hinkle's program is inspired by Rhode Island's Community MusicWorks, an innovative urban music program with the Providence String Quartet in residence, founded in 1997 by educator and 2010 MacArthur fellow Sebastian Ruth. Both educational programs envision an important public service role for professional string quartets by, in Hinkle's words, "uniting youth, families, and musicians around the shared intention of building a strong, thriving community."

Under the chamber music instruction model, each MusiConnects student is given essential one-on-one instruction on a stringed instrument, and is then placed in a chamber group to improvise and play simple multi-voice ensemble music, some written by members of the BPQ. The students also take part in Music Circle, where they sing, play rhythm games, and listen to the quartet play. Students bring their borrowed instruments home to practice, to share music with their parents, and to play with friends outside of class. Hinkle says, "We want to create a community of musicians, students, teachers, and families."

Students can also join another MusiConnects program, Chamber Kids, which provides affordable after school music instruction to students of all ages, including those in middle and high school.

MusiConnects' partnership with Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Boston's Newbury Street provides much needed exposure, volunteers, and funding. The Back Bay church also serves as a prestigious concert venue and home to Emmanuel Music, one of Boston's most respected classical music ensembles. In December of last year, Emmanuel Church teamed with the BPQ and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra to present a Christmas concert and fundraising event for MusiConnects. The evening was a great success for the students who performed alongside their mentors, for their families who listened with pride, and for the BPQ who were able to raise money for the program from the appreciative audience.

The testimony of parents of kids in the MusiConnects program speaks volumes. One parent expressed how helpful the music program has been for her two children, who both have language processing difficulties that have kept them behind academically. When she asked them why they like studying violin so much, they replied, "Because we understand it, Mommy." The BPQ knows that kids learn in different ways and that music classes can help some students improve academically. They treasure the results of their teaching since coming to the Chittick, where classroom teachers report that many kids display better concentration, greater self-esteem, and more cooperation in the classroom, as well as a sense of responsibility and pride in knowing how to play and care for a beautiful stringed instrument.

There is no question that programs like MusiConnects and larger programs based on the El Sistema model, such as Boston's Conservatory Lab Charter School, benefit urban kids by providing inspiring opportunities and direction. But with the CLCS bursting at the seams and further cuts being made in the public schools arts programs, MusiConnects is needed more than ever in Boston.

MusiConnects is funded solely through foundations and individual donors and is helped by JSI donations of instruments and supplies. MusiConnects and the BPQ hope to be able to add more students from the waiting list and to eventually acquire their own teaching space where they can grow the Chamber Kids program. "My biggest hope is that we are able to continue teaching the kids we've started in grades K-5 at the Chittick," says Hinkle. "It would be a shame for kids to have to quit playing when they go on to middle and high schools. I am willing to do whatever it takes."

How you can help: MusiConnects accepts donations on their website through Community Arts Advocates. Please go to musiconnects.org.