The children in the academy, ages 7 to 12, were given the choice of learning the piano, violin or cello, and receive instruments to keep throughout the three-year program.

Yassine Souhir, a 7-year-old violin player whose favorite artists are Rihanna and the French rapper Maître Gims, said he enjoyed listening to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” on YouTube; Macéo Mennesson-Lorrente, also 7, said he was drawn to the cello when he realized that he could feel the vibrations of the instrument in his chest.

And Amine, who lives with a foster family, picked up the cello after he discovered 2Cellos, a pair of Croatian cellists who perform pop and rock, in a genre known as “classical crossover.”

His music lessons must fit into an already busy schedule that includes weekly sessions with psychologists and speech therapists. Amine has started singing at home and his sleep troubles have stopped since he began playing the cello, his foster mother said.

“He likes to clown around, but he calms down as soon as he puts his cello in his hands,” said Marie-Christine Gérardin, a retired factory worker who has raised Amine since he was 18 months old.