Classical music offers young people a way out of Kenya’s slums

The violin s quaver steadied and swelled through the gloomy concrete staircase, escaped through the wire mesh and soared over the packed dirt playgrou...

The violin’s quaver steadied and swelled through the gloomy concrete staircase, escaped through the wire mesh and soared over the packed-dirt playground before dissipating in the acrid smoke drifting in from the smoldering dump site next door.

It was the last day of class before Ghetto Classics broke up for Christmas, and 14-year-old Steve Otieno was practicing his Christmas carols for his final performance of 2024. Undeterred by the demolition of his home last month, the floods that devastated his neighborhood in Nairobi this year, or the eye-watering stink of burning plastic all around him, he stroked the strings to coax forth each note of "Joy to the World.”

"Music makes me feel calm when I’m stressed,” he said shyly. "Some people have drugs. For me, it is music.”

Steve is one of thousands of children from the poorest neighborhoods of the Kenyan capital who have been introduced to classical music by Ghetto Classics.   The organization was set up in 2008 by Elizabeth Njoroge,a classically trained singer who studied pharmacology at her parents’ urging but longed to return to music. A chance encounter with a priest trying to fund a basketball court at a Catholic school in the Nairobi slum of Korogocho inspired her to raise money for the first class of musicians there. They chose the name "Ghetto Classics” to highlight their roots.