Grass Valley, CA – The California Arts Council has announced a major grant award to Music in the Mountains as part of its music education programs during its 2024-25 fiscal year grant cycle. Support awarded will continue to benefit Nevada County and communities throughout the state until the end of the project cycle timeline in September 2025.
“Music in the Mountains’ music education programs provide kids in our community with the opportunity to experience classical music with professional musicians,” notes local arts educator Kimberly Ewing. “We are fortunate to have this organization as a local resource and without MIM, some kids might not get to experience a live orchestra concert.”
In September 2025, Music in the Mountains will be presenting school-age children with concerts that include MIM’s orchestra musicians and theatrical artists. Through music and theater, students will learn and experience the relationship between music and other artistic disciplines as well as its relationship to history and culture providing a learning experience that offers deep cultural resonance for students who would otherwise lack any meaningful access to vital cultural arts programming.
With CAC grant funding and continued support from the community, Music in the Mountains (MIM) will be able to expand their children’s education programming in the fall, providing additional performances in order to accommodate the increasing interest and class demand for MIM’s educational productions. For several years, teachers and children from our local schools have enjoyed fall performances from Music in the Mountains’ professional musicians and world class orchestra.
Music in the Mountains was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council of more than 800 grant awards totaling close to $19.5 million in overall projected investments for operational and project support to nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout the state of California.
The California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. The Arts Council is California’s leading public arts grants provider with funding accessible to every county in California.
Organizations were awarded grants across nine different program areas designed to benefit the whole of California’s arts and culture ecosystem, including a second year of funding for two-year programs awarded in the previous fiscal year. Music in the Mountains was chosen among esteemed colleagues for these highly-competitive and limited funds. Award funds prioritize many of the aspirations articulated in the agency’s Strategic Framework, specifically increasing opportunities for general operating and multiyear grants, geographic equity, individual artists, small organizations, and state-local partner funding and capacity building.
For more than 40 years, Music in the Mountains (MIM) has been bringing live classical music to the Sierra Foothills, the Sacramento Metropolitan area, and surrounding communities with their professional orchestra, auditioned community chorus, and special guests.
For more information about MIM’s education programs, email info@musicinthemountains.org or call (530) 265-6173.
Music in the Mountains (MIM), founded in 1982, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire and connect people of all ages through extraordinary musical performances, community engagement and music education. MIM is community-based and community-supported. A Platinum-Star-Rated 501(c)3 non-profit organization, MIM has been performing and producing classical music in Nevada County for more than forty years.