Newton Student Brings Music to Boston-Area Schools, Non-Profits

When Oak Hill Middle School student Abigail Miller started to think about her bat mitzvah project, she knew right away it would involve music.

But how it would involve music was another question. 

"When I went to my saxophone lesson one day, me and my teacher were thinking about things I could do [for the mitzvah project]," Miller tells Patch. "She put me in touch with Abria Smith, who does the equipment donation program at Berklee [College of Music]...and I figured it out."

For the last year or so, Miller has been collecting instruments for the Berklee Instrument and Equipment Donation Program (BID/BED), a Berklee-run program that provides instruments and equipment to Boston Public School students, Boys and Girls Clubs and other community organizations. 

Miller, who has been playing saxophone since fourth grade, studies with Berklee Assistant Professor Cercie Miller. She plays in two bands at school and has her own jazz group with other students outside of school.

With music as such an important part of her life, Miller says she wanted to make sure other students would be able to have the same opportunity.

So, with a website put together and Craigslist ads posted, Miller set out to collect everything from flutes to keyboards, trombones to drum sets. As of the last instrument drop-off in February, she had collected 34 instruments for the BID/BED program.

"I put up signs at local coffee shops and stores, put a posting on Craigslist that asked for instruments...and I also looked on Craigslist for postings for low-cost [instruments]," Miller said. 

Miller handled everything with the project including emails to donors, phone calls, creating the website and the Craigslist ads. She even negotiated with a few sellers to persuade them to donate the instruments instead.

"The only thing I did was drive her to pick up the instruments and make sure [the donors] were in safe places," Abigail's mother, Meryl, says. "She did all the communication and finding the instruments herself."

All of Abigail's hard work on her mitzvah project will culminate today, March 9, with her bat mitzvah at Temple Emanuel in Newton. While her mitzvah project may be over, Abigail says music will stay a part of her life for many years to come.