[4] Third Street Partners Program[5] provides music and dance instruction to over 25 New York City public schools.

Wagner's goal was to "help poor children of the Lower East Side with music to provide a source of spiritual and cultural nourishment, inspire achievement in its young students, and serve as a universal language for the community’s Jewish, Irish, Italian, Russian, Greek and Hungarian immigrants.

Wagner began teaching violin and piano to 10 students under the auspices of College Settlement of New York in the basement of Mariner's Temple.

Board president Helen Mansfield persuaded the organization in 1905, to invest in two small brownstones at 53–55 East Third Street.

By 1915, Ms. Wagner's vision had inspired similar music school settlements in thirty American cities.