While growing up in Baltimore, current Fishtown resident Alysia Lee was a bit of a problem child with a lot of attitude.

“As a kid, I was really smart mouthed and prone to violence. I’d throw desks and chairs in school,” Lee said. “I just had a lot of issues and was always in counseling.”

But while Lee’s smart mouth kept getting her in trouble, it was a powerful singing voice that got her accepted into the Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, a performing arts high school. After she threw her first chair at Carver, Lee’s new principal sat her down and gave this stipulation:

“My principal went, ‘that’s great, Alysia, if you want to throw chairs then you can go back to your neighborhood high school and throw chairs there,’” Lee recounted. “Needless to say, I never threw a chair again. That’s a true story.”

Lee didn’t want to leave Carver and the irresistible community of students and musicians she connected with there. These students were willing to change themselves in whatever way possible to be part of that positive place and enrich their lives.

“I knew that having a musical community in my grasp was an opportunity that was too good to pass up and that I’d be willing to make some adjustments in my own behavior to become a more positive person and be part of this community,” Lee said. “What happened because of that? I was able to go to college completely free, get my masters degree completely free, I was able to travel the world and people have paid me to sing. Music opens up a lot of doors for kids who otherwise would have those doors slammed in their face.”

Years later while studying at New England Conservatory, Lee learned about El Sistema, a music for social change program in Venezuela that started out with 12 students 40 years ago and now has 400,000 kids enrolled in free music lessons each week. Lee became an El Sistema Fellow, going to Venezuela to learn about the program before traveling around the country visiting other programs that are inspired by this idea that music can help create social change.

What Lee found on her travels is that music programs like El Sistema do work. In 2012, she founded a music for social change group based on her own experiences. The group, Sister Cities Girlchoir, is a choral academy focused on improving the lives of girls living in Philadelphia and Camden. By making music together and channeling the benefits that music has on brain function, math, reading and community, Lee sees Sister Cities as a tool to create social change and empower girls living in these cities.

“It’s a really great opportunity for kids to have a well rounded and complete musical experience of a really high quality,” Lee said. “And it’s all completely free.”

Sister Cities started with a pilot program at the Memphis Street Academy in Kensington in 2012. Like El Sistema, the Kensington choir group started with only 12 students. Fast forward to this year and Sister Cities now boasts a roster of 290 “Purple Girls” in choirs from neighborhood schools in Kensington, West Philadelphia and Camden, N.J. Corporate sponsors, such as The Townsend Press, The Dodge Foundation, Applegate, Campbell’s Soup and Chapman Auto support the program and cover all costs for participating girls.

“The kids get so many opportunities,” Lee said. “Yes, they get to rehearse and learn different songs from all over the world together, but all these girls from all these different neighborhoods get to meet each other for Saturday activities, go on trips and perform together.”

In addition to the personal and emotional growth its members exhibit, Sister Cities is proud of the musical development of the ensemble. The Girlchoir has shared the stage with Opera Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Singers and the Broadway Dreams Foundation. This year alone, Sister Cities Girlchoir will be taking center stage at the Kimmel Center twice.

Music can be a powerful tool to start change, but in Lee’s opinion it’s about the community of music makers who start the change.

“It’s all about people,” Lee said. “What we do at Sister Cities is create this high level, high-energy environment that is also coupled with this wonderful sense of heartwarming. We talk to the girls about protecting the sisterhood—protecting our connection to ourselves and keeping the space free and creative while also making it emotionally safe.”

Sister Cities Girlchoir works directly with specific schools in their target neighborhoods to get girls involved in the program. Unfortunately, the organization has had to turn away kids who do not attend these schools. In an effort to get more interested girls involved, Lee and her team has worked hard start a program that’s open to all of Northeast and North Philadelphia. Housed in North Liberties at the Walter Palmer Charter School (901 N. 6th St.), the Northern Liberties Choir will meet every Saturday morning where a staff of professional singers teach a middle school choir (Big Sisters Choir) and an elementary school choir (Little Sisters Choir). Lee invites any girls interested in joining to come by and see the choir for themselves.

“Philadelphia is a great breeding ground for this kind of program,” Lee said. “We are really excited to be in Northern Liberties and we’re really excited to expand beyond Kensington and get kids from other schools involved. We’re excited to see what happens when all these pieces come together.”

Philadelphia is a musical town—there’s always music happening in our streets. Whether it’s Boyz II Men coolin’ on South Street or the Fresh Prince maxin’ and relaxin’ in West Philly, Kenny Gamble’s soul or that band that you saw play at your favorite bar last weekend, the harmonies crafted by these individuals help create an identity that is innately Philadelphian. Even if the girls participating in Sister Cities Girlchoir don’t end up as famous, Grammy-winning artists, they are still leaving a positive mark on their community with their voices just as the choir leaves a positive mark on their psyche and self image.

“I tell the kids all of the time you don’t have to go on to be a musician because you’re here,” Lee said. “There’s actually a really great statistic out there that if you take a low arts, low income kid versus a high arts, low income kid, the high arts kid is three times as likely to earn a masters degree. I am proof of that.”

“Music helps you be more connected to this eternal stream that flows through our lives; Jill Scott jumped on that stream but Hayden also jumped on back in the day,” Lee said, dropping the names of two of her favorite artists. “Music adds beauty to your life and kids need that just like we all do. Hopefully when people see the kids and hear them sing they’ll be proud of the kids that come from their community.”

For more information on Sister Cities Girlchoir contact Alysia Lee at 909-4SISTER or alysia@sistercitiesgirlchoir.org. To register for Girlchoir call or email the organization for a registration form, or visit any Saturday morning rehearsal from 10 AM – 12 PM  in the Walter Palmer Leader School’s cafeteria (910 N. 6th Street) to register in-person.