"At a warehouse in an industrial corridor of downtown Los Angeles, a handful of technicians are hunched over their brightly lit workstations, tinkering with saxophones, violins, and pianos. This facility is one of the only remaining publicly funded repair shops for musical instruments in the country. Thousands of cases lay neatly stacked across tall shelves, ready to be shipped to schools across the nation's second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD). These district-owned instruments and the repairs are a free service to students here."
"In a school district where about 80% of students come from low-income backgrounds, the repair shop helps create equitable access to quality instruments, he says, which can be expensive to own and maintain. And it's a huge help for educators, too. "For teachers not to think about what to do with a broken instrument, to think 'where am I going to find repairs?'... That is all extra stress on a teacher.""
The repair shop operates in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse where technicians repair saxophones, violins, pianos and other instruments at bright workstations. The facility is one of the few remaining publicly funded repair shops nationally and maintains about 120,000 district-owned instruments circulated through Los Angeles Unified. Repairs and district-owned instruments are provided free to students, supporting equitable access in a district with roughly 80% low-income students. The shop reduces teacher stress by handling broken instruments and logistical needs. The facility gained visibility after the documentary The Last Repair Shop won an Oscar, prompted grateful letters, and secured a $1 million donation from Herb Alpert.
Read at www.npr.org
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