Elemental Music

09/01/2026

🎺🥁 Elemental Band is where young musicians in grades 3–5 get their first taste of playing in a full concert band! Brass, woodwind, and percussion students who LOVE making music get the chance to develop their chops and play with other young music lovers, building real ensemble skills from the very first rehearsal.

Elemental Band is open to grades 3 through 5 with some prior experience, so it’s the perfect next step for a student who’s ready for more music opportunities, making friends and building confidence one rehearsal at a time.

Led by veteran Elemental Music program director Peter Senchuk, Elemental Band students perform three concerts each season, showing off all of their hard work!

Ensemble placements are the week of September 9. Enroll now to reserve your spot: elementalmusic.org/elemental-band

08/30/2026

🎸 Elemental Guitar is one of our most unique programs. Learning guitar can often be a solitary pursuit, but not with Elemental Music! In our guitar ensemble, students learn everything from classical pieces to rock and pop songs, all while building real technique alongside a group of other young guitarists.

Elemental Guitar is open to students in grades 3–8, with no experience or audition required. Whether your student will just be picking up a guitar for the first time or has already been playing for a few years, there’s a place for them here.

🎶 Students rehearse together, learn from each other, and get to show off what they’ve learned at performances throughout the year. It’s a great way to build confidence, meet new friends, and fall in love with playing guitar, all under the inspiring teaching of Director Dr. Buzz Gravelle and guitar coach Adrian Martinez!

Spots fill up fast, so don’t wait. Enroll today at the link in our bio!

08/27/2026

Our Prelude students got to do something pretty special last season. Before their final concert, they had a Zoom meet & greet with Nicolas Repetto, the real live composer who wrote the piece they’d been rehearsing all spring! The students got to ask him questions and hear what he was thinking when he wrote the music, all before performing the piece on stage just a few weeks later. 🎶

That’s the kind of experience young musicians get in Prelude. Prelude is our beginning strings program for grades 3 to 5, no experience or audition required! This program is a great fit for students who want a head start in music and are excited about learning a new instrument, and want to experience the joy of playing in their first orchestra.

Under the inspiring and FUN leadership of Prelude Director Dr. Little, Prelude’s low student-to-teacher ratio allows every student to get the individual attention they need to build a strong foundation from day one. 🎻

Sign up today: https://www.elementalmusic.org/prelude

08/26/2026

We are so excited to be offering not one but TWO elementary level choirs this season: Elemental Singers for grades K–2 led by our beloved choral director Kelly Adams and Elemental Choir for grades 3–5 led by our beloved choral director Jessi Spike Gravelle!

There is no prior choir experience required to join these groups - just a love for singing! Young singers will love learning new songs, singing in different languages, playing musical games, and meeting new friends. To save your spot in our Santa Monica-based youth choirs, sign up on our website:

🎵 https://www.elementalmusic.org/news/springenrollment26

08/07/2026

We had so much fun hosting Third Street Tiny Beats with Downtown Santa Monica last month and can’t wait to get started with our Summer Mini Unit beginning THIS Sunday at Elemental Music! Classes will be held indoors at our (air-conditioned!!) music school campus in Santa Monica.

Give your little one the gift of music and join us! From babies to preschoolers, our classes build motor skills, language, memory, and attention…all while caregivers and kids make music together in a joyful, connected space! Sign up at our website 🎶 and we’ll see you soon for some moving and grooving: https://www.elementalmusic.org/early-childhood

08/04/2026

Throwback to Fiction & Fantasy week at our Adventures in Music day camp last month! 📖✨ Campers composed an original score for their own retelling of Aesop’s fable The Tortoise and the Hare, built instruments from scratch, and brought classics like Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music, Danse Macabre, and the William Tell Overture to life. We had so much fun and can’t wait to do camp again next summer!

07/21/2026

Every spring, we say goodbye to a group of graduating high school seniors. Some we’ve known since elementary school while others joined us in middle or high school...but all of them found a home in our programs through their love of music!

This year’s 11 graduates are heading off to colleges across the country, carrying what they learned at Elemental Music with them, wherever their paths lead next.

Swipe through to hear from each of them in their own words and visit our website to read more about their words of wisdom for young musicians, what our programs meant to them, and more: https://www.elementalmusic.org/news/2026/7/19/senior-spotlight-elemental-musics-class-of-2026

Congratulations, Class of 2026. You’ll always be part of our Elemental Music family. 💙

07/20/2026

So proud of our student Maxwell, who has been selected to perform at Carnegie Hall this week through the Honors Performance Series! Not only that, but he was also chosen to play the featured solo cello passages in the repertoire the orchestra will perform.

"He has focused on the cello for five years, training under sought-after instructor Betsy Rettig, and has been part of Santa Monica-based Elemental Music since he began the instrument in fourth grade. He has performed with [Elemental Music's] Academy Philharmonic for three years, serving as first-chair cellist for the last two, and has spent three years in the organization's Chamber Music Institute."

Maxwell's story is exactly why we do what we do: he started with us as a young beginner and has grown into the advanced musician he is today. At Elemental Music, students train with us through every stage of their development...from their very first notes all the way to Carnegie Hall!

Congrats, Maxwell. 👏 We can't wait to hear all about your experience when you are back home!

Maxwell Prado, 14-year-old cellist from Santa Monica, selected to perform solo at Carnegie Hall on July 23 through competitive Honors Performance Series.

07/18/2026

🎶 What does summer look like for advanced middle school musicians at Elemental Music? Four weeks of rehearsal, one final concert, zero conductors!

Our Summer Sounds Academy students took on something most young musicians never get to try: performing as a fully conductorless chamber orchestra. With no one on the podium, they had to sharpen their listening and leadership skills, holding the ensemble together entirely on their own - the kind of independence and musicianship that sets top young musicians apart!

Thanks to Samohi Orchestra Directors Jason Aiello and Emily Taylor for leading this special program! It was extra meaningful having Ms. Taylor back to teach, as she’s an alum of our ensemble and Teaching Fellowship programs. 💛

Is your young musician ready to be pushed to the next level? Sign up for our 2026/27 ensembles at the link in our bio!

07/15/2026

We are having so much fun partnering with to bring you Third Street Tiny Beats and offer FREE music classes and instrument petting zoos for little ones (5 and under) at the Promenade this month. It was a joy to meet so many families last week. We’re here again today until 12:15pm and we’ll be back for the final session next week! Stop by and see us!