With school budgets being drastically cut all across the country, school programs are being eliminated such as music, physical education and technology programs. There are nonprofits who are working diligently to ensure that music programs are not being cut from schools and remain a vital part of the core subject curricula.
Education Through Music (ETM) was founded to promote the integration of music into the curricula of disadvantaged schools in order to enhance students' academic performance and general development. ETM forms long-term partnerships with inner-city elementary schools that lack the resources to develop school-wide music programs. ETM encourages academic teachers and teaching artists to collaborate so that music can reinforce learning and development in all areas. ETM also helps schools to embrace music as a core subject by involving all members of the school community.
Over the years, the organization has been approached by many well-known artists and musicians that were interested in being involved with ETM. ETM is fortunate because they had an opportunity to be very finicky about which celebrities they chose to align with their mission and overall goals.
Grammy-winning violin virtuoso Joshua Bell is one of ETM's greatest supporters and has been involved as an Advisory Board member for the past seven years. His involvement goes far and beyond simply lending his name to the organization. Over the past seven years, he has visited a number of partner schools and offered encouragement and support to the students, oftentimes staying for hours at a time to speak with individual kids and conduct master classes on the violin.
In an interview with the New York Nonprofit Business Examiner, Katherine Damkohler, Executive Director of ETM says,"One of our goals is to expose our students to more than the music they hear on the radio or at home. Having an artist of Joshua's caliber perform for these kids in a way they might never have heard before, truly makes them appreciate the music and the instruments they are learning."
Bell initially did a tour at an inner-city elementary school in the Bronx when he was first introduced to ETM and to his surprise, all of the students knew all of his music and had posters of him hanging all around the school. There was an enormous respect for classical music from the students and Bell wanted to show the kids that he is a normal guy and classical music doesn't have to be stuffy or boring.
"I believe that all children need to be exposed to a complete education, one that includes music, and I see that goal being achieved through the amazing work that ETM does with their partner schools. For most kids these days, the only real opportunities for participating in music and for listening to classical music happens in school, and that’s why it’s so important to keep music education alive," says Bell.
Bell offers his words of wisdom to other celebrities who may be considering aligning their celebrity status with a nonprofit organization. He believes there are nonprofits that are not managed well and even though they have the greatest of intentions, it is difficult for them to follow through with their missions. Celebrities should do their due diligence and be educated on the cause before making a decision to support the organization.
Bell offers, "It is extremely rewarding to be able to give back to the community, and especially to children – visiting these kids, and especially being able to visit with them throughout the years and see them progressing, has been a truly rewarding experience for me. They have inspired me perhaps more than I have inspired them."
Join ETM for their 2nd Wine Tasting of Union Square on Saturday, April 24, 2010 from 3-6pm at the Union Square Area in New York City.
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