When the summer cacophony of oboes, violins, cellos and other instruments warm up in Bellport High School, that’s when change begins.

For a week, this South Country Summer Music Program, funded by the Becker/Gambles Music Fund, urges fifth-grade to ninth-grade students to think. About their relationship to the instrument. About what the music says. About the possibilities. Perhaps a career as a musician, an instructor, or just establishing a lifelong love to play for oneself.

South Country offers music programs from K-12; the school provides the instruments.

But the Becker/Gambles Music Fund, a committee under the South Country Education Fund umbrella, provides an extra monetary boost towards an avenue to music.

An upcoming benefit concert—$20 for adults, $10 for students—on Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. by the Voyager Reed Quintet, one of New York City’s premier chamber ensembles, will play an hour program at the Old South Haven Presbyterian Church; a reception is planned after.

The quintet has quite the cachet. Recipients of an Ensemble Forward Grant from Chamber Music America, the quintet has performed at The Juilliard School and at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City concert series and served as the resident chamber music ensemble for the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra Playing clarinet (Nikhil Bartolomeo), saxophone (Jarod Apple), oboe (Megan Wojtyla), bassoon (Miguel Posadas), and bass clarinet (Timothy Hanley), a wide variety of music inspires them, particularly that of living composers, jazz and popular music, contemporary classical music, and older works made new to the reed-quintet medium.

Besides the Summer Concert Program, there are other Becker/Gambles music offerings in the mix, including a scholarship program for fourth to 11th graders for weekly music lessons during the summer months and master classes by SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Fredonia and Tufts University advanced students. And a concert series. The not-for-profit has been doing this since 2002.

“We’ll send students to pre-college the summer of their senior years,” said original board member Dava Stravinsky. “We sent a young man to Crane School of Music this summer. It gives students a chance to figure out how they want to progress. Some want to be music educators, some performers. But our programs are offered in the South Country School District and we’re doing things while they are still here.”

Angelina Wasson, district music chair, said that the summer concert program sponsors 10 to 15 students. “From there, they can request their interest in a particular camp, like a violin camp,” Wasson explained.

“They make out an application to us,” said Stravinsky. “Some camps are several thousand dollars. Some students apply for individual lessons.”

Wasson, whose primary instrument is the flute, met the Voyager Reed Quintet professionally, thus the connection.

The day of the Voyager Reed Quintet concert will encompass a musical immersion. “They will be in the high school band room,” said original board member Hans Tempel of the sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade bands and orchestras.

Stravinsky added that the Voyager Reed Quintet will be in residency, providing a  master class. “It’s not one-on-one instruction, but they’ll go over things like how you start a group,” she said.

Then, the sixth, seventh,  and eighth-grade bands and choruses will gather in the middle school for student concert. “So, it will be an educational day and then at night, the benefit concert,” Tempel said.

Money raised from the benefit will pay the musicians performing and fund next summer’s music lessons. “Some money comes to us by private donations,” Stravinsky said. “Also, people have left us money in their wills.”

Stravinsky noted they have received hundreds of thank-you notes over the years. Also, the enthusiasm that bubbles up when young musicians gather is infectious; it’s like they’ve found their place.

Were there any other school districts with a music program supported by an outside nonprofit like SCEF’s Becker/Gambles Music Fund?

Besides her roles as district music chairperson and director of the wind ensemble at Bellport High School (she also runs the flute and clarinet choirs, percussion and jazz ensembles), Wasson is South Country Music Educators’ Association (SCMEA) president.

“I know about a lot of programs,” she said, “but it’s unique that a nonprofit outside group supports this.”