The Sounds for Success program is a program offered at Union Public Schools’ Rosa Parks Early Childhood Education Center involving the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Through Sounds for Success, TSO musicians visit the school once each week to engage children in learning through music.

The Early Childhood Center targets children as young as 3 from low-income families. Those children are considered more at risk of falling behind academically than their peers.

"I am so convinced that we've got to engage children and families early," said Erv Janssen, a retired child psychiatrist and member of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra board. "Without a community coming together in a collaborative process, kids won't make it."

Four organizations - Union Public Schools, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, the Community Action Project of Tulsa County and Hilti Inc. - work to bring Sounds for Success to the school. It is based on a tested model developed in Venezuela.

Using music in child development promotes:

• Self-esteem
• Self-confidence
• Self-image
• Eye, ear and hand development
• A sense of responsibility to others
• Strong interpersonal and interactive relationships
• Brain development through growth and integration of neural pathways that no other activity can provide
• Academic skills that lay the groundwork for life-long growth potential
• Impulse control
• Decision-making skills