We just went to the student orchestra concert our school district put on. In the 4th-6th grades, 50% of all of the kids (public school) participate in a weekly orchestra! This concert included everyone 5th-12th grades, in probably 8-10 different symphonic orchestra groups.
There were at least 500 kids participating! Isn't that incredible? I thought it would be lousy, with the grade school kids doing "Hot Cross Buns," but they sounded like what I thought a high school would sound like! The junior high was amazing, and we left before the high school kids played (it was already 2 hours into it).
I took my third grader to motivate him. He is in his second year of piano and pretty good. In the fall, he said he wanted to play the Viola which sounds like "dark chocolate." The orchestra teacher started a recruiting visit to his class.
Just amazing! It's open to all kids in our city.

My DS(10) was able to get Viola lessons this year through the school. It is voluntary and free!! (have to buy/rent the instrument- but renting is actually very cheap, I was surprised)

It was awesome and he actually likes it. I do not think he is going to prove to be a virtuoso! , but a base line learning of music is great.It was his first exposure to music beyond the basic school music class and I am impressed with how well all of these kids are doing.

They have percussion starting in the 5th grade and DS is excited about that. Not sure if I am though

Yes, strings! I had never really heard of the viola, LOL. It looks like alot of fun, I guess. I took piano until age 10, when my "illustrious" piano career ended.
Taking piano has been great for my son. His teacher really stresses music theory. He is hearing impaired and has an auditory processing disorder, so hopefully the music is helping that issue.