Berkeley Society For The Preservation Of Traditional Music

The freight's education programs continued to thrive in 2024, including two sold out sessions of our popular freight singers community chorus, five sessions of our instrumental and vocal classes, as well as multi-genre workshops, and jams which reached 2,000 students of all ages. In addition, our flagship 4th grade arts integration (social studies/music) program golden state of song launched in berkeley unified school district in 2024 with support from the california state library, featuring teaching artist/educator shirley muramoto. We also launched our first teaching artist residency series at a local private elementary school where we provided beatmaking, rapping, and percussion instruction to students from 1st-7th grades.

The freight continued to foster new partnerships and collaborations with our berkeley neighbors in 2024: we participated in a youth summer camp hosted by our fellow arts organization ashkenaz, and we continued our new collaborative relationship with berkeley city college by developing and presenting a unique live art and music event for latinx heritage month. Our rental division, now led by a new, dedicated staff member, continued to work with dozens of community partners, and we laid the groundwork for a new partnership with black banjo reclamation project, a local arts organization with space needs which the freight can help fulfill.