A Symphony Breathes Life Into 400 Broken School Instruments

By Joshua Barone
December 4, 2017
The New York Times

PHILADELPHIA — As the garagelike door rolled up at the 23rd Street Armory here on Sunday evening, 400 student, amateur and professional musicians paraded in with just a helping of the broken instruments that have spent years languishing in this city’s strapped public school system.

A trumpet was held together with blue painter’s tape. A violin, stripped of much of its body, had been reduced to a silhouette. More than one cello was carried in multiple pieces.