Big Giving Hands are Out There

Are you a band director longing to have more instruments in your band room? Do you want to have enough instruments for students who want to learn how to play? Do you teach music at an elementary school and want to start a band with your students? Check these out.

On Nov. 5^th, 2010, there were surprise and joy in the band room of Thomas C. Boushall Middle School in Virginia. Six school and Fidelity Investment bank officials marched into the band room holding eleven new instruments: saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, and a trombone. The total of $25,000 worth of instruments was given to the band that day. According to my search at Google, Fidelity Investments’ gift giving started in 2006 by the name of “Future Stage” program. The company’s donation has been about 2000 instruments to more than 160 schools so far. Fidelity is not alone in giving children chances to enrich their lives through music. VH1 Save the Music Foundation “provides complete band, string, keyboard, and guitar programs to benefiting schools”, especially to the elementary schools.

The music program in public school curriculum has often been threatened by economic down turns. Now things seem changed. Organization like VH1STM, and companies like Fidelity Investments want to help “the restoration of public school music program.” The first school band movement in history started in 1923. (Please check my posting “History of the School Band” on Nov. 15) I can feel that another one is started and I wish I am not wrong. Please check the following websites and participate making a difference in children’s lives through music education or get information to create your dream school band.

If you teach music at an elementary school, visit: www.vh1.com/partners/save_the_music/who_we_are/foundation.html

If you want information about Fidelity’s “Future Stage” program, visit:           www.futurestage.com/home

If you are interested in Fender Music Foundation Grants info, visit:      www.fendermusicfoundation.org/index.cfm

History of the school Band

I was curious. My curiosity for the history of the school band got deeper and deeper when I was planning this blog. Who should get the credit for this great program? There must be someone who planted seeds of an apple tree or an accidental event would have turned into the amazing results. I searched for the history of the school band at Google where only a few sites appeared as search results. Disappointedly, I couldn’t find anything on Wikipedia. I will add the list of the websites I used for this posting at the end.
Is necessity the Mother of invention? Of course the birth of the school band program was not an invention, but I couldn’t help myself remember this quote when I read the articles. The school band movement started in the early 1920’s in the form of the national school band contest. At that time, the venders of instruments desperately needed a new market to sell the instruments. So they created fund of $10,000 donated by Carl Greenleaf of Conn Company to hold the contest. Even though participation was pretty limited, the organizers, the Chicago Piano Club, a dealer’s association, had enough enthusiasm to continue. At the same time, after the WWI, many quality musicians came back home from the war, sought jobs as music teachers and as band directors in high schools. From 1923 to 1931, under the supervision and sponsored by the music instrument manufacturers, the national school band contests continued. At that time the standards for instruments and music for the school band were set.
Even though the contests continued for only a decade, “the momentum it sparked had carried on to this day through the spirit of competition and high standard of performance found in contemporary school bands.”(www.lipscomb.edu)

Resources
The American School Band Movement
http://www.lipscomb.edu/windbandhistory/RhodesWindBand_09_AmericanSchoolBand.htm
A Brief History of the Conn Company
http://people.usd.edu/~mbanks/CONN13.html
A Short History of Wind Bands/Bands in the U.S.
http://cnx.org/content/m14566/latest/