Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

All over, access to the arts is not equally distributed. Whether it’s painting, sewing or in this case, music. Art hasn’t been something many Detroit kids can easily engage with. That’s partly because it takes money to make art available.

To help make art more accessible, The Joyce Foundation awarded a grant last year in collaboration with the Detroit Parks Coalition. With this support, Detroit-based saxophonist, composer, and educator Marcus Elliot created a series to bring music to the parks.

Sounds from the Park is more than music in the park. Each composition is inspired by the neighborhood’s community. As you continue to learn more about the uniqueness of Detroit and its history, it becomes easier to understand that it needs to be preserved in every form, including sonically.

This year, Sounds from the Park took the tunes to Clark Park and will make its way to Eliza Howell Park on August 2nd. Helping enrich the Sidewalk Detroit festival’s 10-year celebration.

Today on The Metro to tell us more about his new initiative, we had Marcus Elliot. He is an instructor of jazz saxophone at Wayne State University and the director of the Creative Arts Orchestra at the University of Michigan.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

More stories from The Metro