The Academy of Community Music offers the Crescendo Music Program, an enrichment-oriented, therapeutic, and educational program that uses music to facilitate the development of preschool children at risk in Head Start and Early Intervention centers, shelters and daycares. Crescendo's Weekly Music Classes, Parental Involvement Materials and Special Performances concert engage children with disabilities and economic disadvantages and their parents in shared musical activity.  The word “crescendo” is a musical term meaning “to grow.”

History and Mission

The Academy of Community Music was founded in 1983 by Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Robert dePasquale and his wife, Ellen Fisher, to engage children and parents in shared musical activity without regard to musical ability, physical or cognitive disability, or economic difficulty.  The Academy developed the Crescendo Music Program - an enrichment-oriented, therapeutic, and educational program that uses music to facilitate the development of preschool children at risk.