For some students, music class is an opportunity to learn an instrument. For others, it can become a lifelong passion, a creative outlet or a way to connect with their peers and community.
Research increasingly suggests it can also have benefits that extend well beyond the music room.
Studies have linked music education with improved cognitive function, creativity, confidence, emotional well-being and school connectedness. A University of Southern California study found students who began music education at younger ages were more likely to report hopeful expectations for the future and score higher in measures of positive youth development.
That research is part of the reason ARIAS — Amelia Residents In Action for the Symphony — continues working to expand music education opportunities for Nassau County students.
The organization was formed in 2003 as an affiliate of the Jacksonville Symphony with three goals: enhance music education in Nassau County schools, increase exposure to the Jacksonville Symphony locally and encourage Nassau County residents to attend performances at Jacoby Symphony Hall.
Today, ARIAS supports those goals through grants, student performances, transportation to Jacksonville concerts and opportunities for local students to experience professional and advanced student musicians.
“We're constantly looking for opportunities where we can support and enhance music education here in Nassau County,” said ARIAS President Sheri Van Orden.
The organization’s roots go back to 1999, when volunteers began taking an “instrument zoo” into fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms throughout Nassau County.
For about 20 years, students were given the chance to try approximately 20 different instruments. The program introduced children to instruments they might never otherwise have had an opportunity to play.
Van Orden said former participants still occasionally approach ARIAS members to talk about the experience and how much it meant to them.
The instrument zoo ended during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the difficulty of safely sharing instruments between students. ARIAS donated the instruments to nonprofit organizations throughout Nassau County rather than allowing them to sit unused.
The organization then shifted its focus toward providing direct financial support to music educators.
Through the Nassau Education Foundation, ARIAS provides grants to teachers for equipment, materials and programs that fall outside their normal school budgets. The organization currently supports music education efforts involving more than 5,000 Nassau County students.
Among the educators who have received support is Paul Arnold at Callahan Middle School. ARIAS has helped Arnold purchase materials related to music theory and history, collections for different instruments and equipment used by band students.
At Fernandina Beach Middle School, ARIAS has supported music educator Asa Jernigan’s masterclass program, which brings professional musicians into the school to work with advanced students.
The organization previously supported Solomon Johnson at Emma Love Hardee Elementary School with an Orff instrument program.
This year, ARIAS also provided support to Hilliard Elementary and Yulee Primary School for the HeidiSongs program, which uses music to reinforce reading and language arts skills for kindergarten and first-grade students.
The program illustrates one of the broader benefits of music education: It does not necessarily stay confined to a music classroom.
USC researchers found that students who participate in multiple forms of music education and remain involved for longer periods tend to score higher in measures of competence and hopeful future expectations. Researchers also found that music programs can help students develop skills, work through emotions, strengthen connections with their schools and build relationships with peers.
For Van Orden, those benefits make access to music education important even for students who have no intention of pursuing music professionally.
“Not everybody has to be that intent on music to get something out of music,” she said.
But access to some types of music education remains limited in Nassau County.
There is currently no formal string program in the county's public schools, Van Orden said. While elementary schools offer some choral opportunities, there is no formal choral program continuing through middle and high school.
That can create challenges for students who discover an interest in music later in their education.
Van Orden said she has encountered students with strong singing voices who have never learned to read music.
She points to her own experience as an example of the long-term impact school music programs can have.
“I would not be doing what I'm doing today, singing with a symphony chorus, if I had not had choral programs in my middle and high school,” she said.
ARIAS is also working to expose students to musicians who have reached an advanced level.
This year, the organization brought the top-level ensemble of the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra to Fernandina Beach Middle School for a free concert.
The young musicians had worked their way through six levels of the youth orchestra program to reach its highest level. The ensemble included high school and early college students, many of whom plan to pursue music in some form.
The performance gave local students and families an opportunity to hear an advanced orchestra without traveling to Jacksonville.
“It sounded like you were listening to a professional orchestra,” Van Orden said.
ARIAS hopes to bring the youth orchestra back every two or three years.
The organization also brings smaller Jacksonville Symphony ensembles to Nassau County. A violin, harp and viola trio is scheduled to perform this fall, with a double bass quartet planned for spring 2027.
Those performances serve as fundraisers for ARIAS while also bringing live classical music to local audiences.
The organization has also expanded its transportation program, providing buses from Yulee and Amelia Island to Jacksonville Symphony performances on Friday nights.
The service is intended to remove one of the barriers for residents who want to attend concerts but do not want to drive after dark.
ARIAS provided eight buses last year and plans 11 this year, along with transportation for a special January performance featuring travel personality Rick Steves and the Jacksonville Symphony.
The organization's efforts ultimately come down to creating opportunities — whether that means putting an instrument into a child's hands, helping a teacher purchase equipment or giving a student the chance to hear an orchestra perform live.
And research suggests those opportunities can have an impact that lasts far beyond the final note.
“We want to encourage a broader range,” Van Orden said. “Even if they don't wind up doing anything with it post-high school, at least they will have had that opportunity to build and grow and learn during those school years.”
ARIAS is funded through memberships, donations, bus sponsorships and two annual fundraisers, allowing the organization to continue looking for new ways to bring music education and live performances to Nassau County.