Learning to play an instrument requires practicing for thousands of hours and can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

While practice still makes perfect, musicians at UpBeat NYC do not have to spend a dime.

The nonprofit provides free music education to 210 students of all levels in the South Bronx.

Charlie Lopez, 17, can often be heard polishing his pieces for his college auditions ahead of his rehearsals at UpBeat NYC.

“Playing music is a huge privilege, largely because I’ve been in several financial situations where I couldn’t even dream of pursuing the cello in the future,” he told NY1.

Husband and wife Liza Austria and Richard Miller co-founded UpBeat NYC in 2009.

“We both felt really passionately about there being about having access [to] music education for young people,” she s

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