By Christian Mignot

Los Altos-based Music for Minors and the local adult professional choir Schola Cantorum has scheduled a choral music concert 3 p.m., May 6 at Gunn High School’s Spangenberg Theatre.

The concert, “Voices in Harmony,” will bring together two organizations that have consistently shown their great commitment to sharing the gift of music with the community. The 60-minute concert will feature approximately 135 Schola Cantorum adult singers along with 45 children from MFM’s children’s choir. Together with special guest performer Charlotte Diamond, they will explore the different ways to create harmonies through song. “It will be a stunning visual as well as aural experience,” claimed Children’s Chorus music director Cathy Humphers Smith, “a great afternoon for the whole family.” All year, children from every elementary school in the Los Altos School District have come together after school to rehearse for this concert.

MFM, a non-profit organization started in 1975, trains volunteers and provides docents who teach music to children in elementary schools unable to provide such programs. The docent program brings music to approximately 4,000 children per year in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

In the Los Altos School District alone, MFM reaches about 1,000 students. A total of 100-140 docents participate each year, after having taken 55 hours of college-accredited training through MFM. Volunteers usually lead half-hour classes every week, mostly for students from kindergarten to third grade.

“Our main goal is to nurture a lifelong love for music in the children,” Humphers Smith said. “They discover the joy that can be gained from making music.”

Apart from providing classes within school hours, MFM also runs an after-school program taught by professional music teachers in collaboration with San Jose L.E.A.R.N.S. and the Mountain View YMCA. These programs are focused on music appreciation, basic musical theory, song, dance and rhythmic activities.

“Our classes benefit children in many ways: they learn to listen, they learn about teamwork when they make music together, they are given the opportunity to engage in something both physical and academic,” Humphers Smith said.

Due to the popularity of MFM’s programs in schools and the increasing number of children involved, the organization has needed to develop new classes and, invariably, to acquire the means to do so.

Limited funding has restricted the expansion of programs thus far, and at times even threatens the continuation of the organization.

“Many kids would not receive any music education whatsoever if it were not for these great volunteers and our programs,” said Diane Holcomb, program director.

For more information about the concert or volunteer opportunities, or to donate to MFM, call 941-9130 or visit www.mfm.org. Concert tickets are available both through the Peninsula Box Office at 322-3100 and at the door.

Proceeds will go toward further benefiting the community and children through music education.