History

AFA (American Festival for the Arts) is Houston’s largest independent non-profit provider of music education programs. Annually, AFA serves over 2,000 young musicians from 150+ schools in 40,000+ hours of educational programming, culminating in 50+ concerts presented free of charge to the general public, many in tandem with AFA’s collaborative arts partners.

AFA was founded in 1993 to break down the barriers that exist in music education. Since its inception, AFA’s primary goal has been to address arts education needs not currently being met in the community and to complement existing activities, whether by other arts organizations or by area school districts. AFA’s partnerships with leading arts organizations and a variety of local school districts have distinguished AFA for its willingness to respond to the needs of the broader music education community through both investment of resources and collaborative program development.

Starting as a series of touring music education residencies at colleges and museums across Texas, AFA launched its flagship program, the Summer Music Festival, in 1996 which has been hailed as a national model of intensive music education programming and now serves 400+ instrumentalists, vocalists, and composers in grades 3-12 yearly.

In 2010, AFA launched AFA Ensembles & Instruction, in-depth weekend-based opportunities (Chamber Music Academy and Composition Studies) to serve a growing need for quality programs in a variety of musical disciplines. The following year, AFA launched Engage AFA, offering a diverse array of free, customized in-school and after-school residencies, clinics, and master classes to schools and community centers. In 2022, AFA launched a program in partnership with the Houston Symphony and The DeLuxe Theater entitled DeLUXE K!DS In Harmony to provide tuition-free violin instruction to students in Houston’s historic Fifth Ward. In the spring of 2023, AFA launched a collaboration with Kinder HSPVA to enhance tuition-free chamber music offerings for its instrumental students and expanded the program in the fall of 2023 to serve 80+ students anually. In the fall of 2024, AFA and the Houston Symphony launched En Armonía Violin Discovery Series with Segundo Barrio Children’s Chorus to provide tuition-free violin instruction in the Second Ward.

AFA believes that every child should have access to quality arts instruction, regardless of socio-economic status or fluctuations in support for the arts in Texas schools. AFA’s Play It Forward Fund ensures access by providing assistance to AFA students and their families to help with tuition, instruments and private lessons and impacted 88% of its students in 2023-24.

AFA is proud to have served 29,000+ young musicians over the last three decades and, with continued recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance, and Harris County Department of Education, is proud to be recognized as one of Houston’s leading arts education assets.

Read more about our mission.