LEWISTON — Music students are playing in the hallways and classrooms at Robert V. Connors Elementary School, and sometimes when buses arrive in the morning.

Equipped with free instruments, the young musicians are learning the history, science and language of music, teacher Greg Boardman said.

His classes are much larger than last year, he said, thanks for the $131,000 Title IV federal grant that allows more students to have instruments of their choice and keep them until their senior year of high school. No longer do they have to buy or rent them.

“The dream was that any Lewiston elementary school student who wished to play an instrument would be able to do so without worrying about paying for their instrument of choice,” Boardman said.

“These kids are lucky that they are starting out with quality, responsive instruments that should inspire them to dig in and pull out all the beauty that they have potential for,” Boardman said.

At the beginning of his 31st year as a music teacher, Boardman’s classes are busier than ever. “My classes are very much larger than they were last year,”  he said. The greater interest comes after a year of work on behalf of teachers and administrators.

“The administration found the grant,” he said. “They dreamt it up and they called us, the music teachers then, Zach Lamperon and I, and said, ‘This is what we’re gonna do. Tell us what you need,'” Boardman recalled. “So we made our dream list.”

“We gave our recruitment spiel at different schools and sent kids home with paperwork in the summer. With their parents, they made a decision to commit to trying this out for a year,” Boardman said. “For the most part, we’ve been able to satisfy them with the instrument of their choice.”

Signing up is easy. “They simply return a form with a parent’s signature. We schedule their lesson, introduce them to their instrument and have them take it home and practice what we went over in the lessons,” Boardman explained. “We grow us some more local musicians. That’s just wonderful.”

Students were encouraged to take part. “We just tried to make students unafraid to sign up because in the past, there were always the sad faces in the buildings who weren’t able to rent,” Boardman said.

“We did have a small group of school instruments that we loaned out on a lottery basis,” he said. “But there has been no need of a lottery at this time. I can see it coming, especially when it comes to an instrument of choice, but not this year,” Boardman said.

“I like the fact that I can meet kids in ways that I would never have outside of teaching music. I can help kids who are interested in music itself to grow. I really love that part of it,” Boardman said. “We play in the hallways sometimes and in classrooms and give programs. Sometimes, we play for bus arrivals in the morning. All of it is a part of a lift that is really needed,” he continued.

Boardman is familiar with the ways in which music instruction changes a child’s life for the better.

“I hear stories from home, from parents who are shocked that they have a musician in the family. It changes the family life in so many positive ways to be part of that support system,” Boardman said. “For siblings and other loved ones to have a closer experience with the sounds of an instrument in the house than they would have otherwise, it is life-changing.”

“A music lesson doubles as a science lesson and a history lesson,” Boardman said. “It is a language. It really helps develop a language and self-discovery, which is a mysterious, shared human experience that happens unawares for the most part.”