Music Educator Organizations Unite So Nashville Public Schools Can Strike Up the Band
Give A Note’s Let’s Play Music Fund Enlists Support from *Save The Music, *SongFarm, *Gibson Gives, and *Music Makes Us Delivering Specially Designed PPE to Let the School Bands Play On – Safely
Nashville, October 27, 2020 – Give A Note Foundation (GAN), which provides support for K-12 public school music education programs nationwide, has joined forces with other leading music education non-profits to raise almost $50,000 to provide Nashville high school and middle school students with specialized PPE that ensures safe participation in making music. This combined effort – under Give A Note’s Let’s Play Music Fund – is now providing more than 8500 Instrument Masks and Bell Covers for brass and woodwinds, plus masks, to be distributed to Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Give A Note marshaled support and donations from key funding partners Save The Music Foundation, SongFarm, Gibson Gives, Music Makes Us, Sony Music Group, and AllianceBernstein. “Nashville is known as Music City so we all want to keep it going when band practice starts again as the schools open at the end of October,” says GAN CEO Beth Slusher. “These specialized instrument masks will make it possible for students to come together and play music safely.”
Following guidelines set by the International Coalition of Performing Arts Aerosol Study, Slusher worked with partners Southeastern Performance Apparel, National Educational Music Company (NEMC), and Practicing Musician to develop the unique instrument mask pattern and bell covers. Slusher says, “What’s so great about our mask vs. those sold by other music education companies, is the hands-free flap that makes it possible for students to easily position the instrument into playing position.
“The concept for the superior design of The Instrument Mask™ comes from great collaboration,” she says. “The founder of Practicing Musician connected me to a music teacher in Connecticut who created the original concept for the design. Then, the technical design team at Southeastern collaborated with us to refine the mask design to meet the aerosol study’s standards, test functionality and comfort while simplifying the manufacturing process to control cost.”
Dr. Adrienne Battle, MNPS Director of Schools, says “As our middle school and high school band students start returning to the joys of practicing and performing together, this gift of PPE will go a long way toward helping them do it safely. Thank you to Give A Note Foundation, Music Makes Us, and all of their partners and donors in Nashville and across the country for this extremely generous donation to our schools.”
PR Contact: Carol Klenfner, carol@klenfner.com, 917-860-0211
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GIVE A NOTE Foundation 501(c)(3) provides support to nurture, grow and strengthen music education opportunities – every student, every school, every community. Founded in 2011 with an initial investment from 21st Century Fox and TV show GLEE, and in cooperation with valued partners, including CMA Foundation, Radio Disney, and National Association for Music Education, GIVE A NOTE has awarded grants in excess of $1.3 Million in support of music education. GAN’s annual Music Education Innovator Awards (MEIA) recognize teachers who have developed creative, effective in-classroom programs and provides ongoing support to encourage lasting change within a school or district. Ninety-five percent of MEIA grants serve students from underfunded metropolitan and rural K-12 public school districts where funding for music education is deficient. Nationally recognized by music educators as an organization that passionately champions their life’s work, GIVE A NOTE delivers opportunities for students to become their best selves through learning and creating music. #MusicEdMatters
The Save The Music Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps students, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music. Founded in 1997, Save The Music partners with school districts and raises funds to restore music programs in public schools. Since inception, the organization has donated over $60 million worth of new musical instruments, equipment, and technology to 2,201 schools in 277 school districts around the country–impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of students. Learn more about Save The Music and its efforts at www.savethemusic.org.
SongFarm.org 501(c)(3) is a coalition of musicians, educators, and businesses who work collaboratively to enable music creation programs in secondary schools. These studios give students access to professional music equipment at their own schools, in the context of their own classes. They also provide music educators with the equipment and technology that are requisite to teaching students modern skill sets for music and film industries. SongFarm is committed to providing ongoing curricula, mentorship, and an alumni network that connects all SongFarm participants in the learning process. Learn more about us at www.songfarm.org.
Gibson Gives: For over 126 years, Gibson has been shaping sound across generations and genres through their guitars. Gibson, and its charitable arm Gibson Gives believe in the power of music, and that getting instruments into the hands of those with a desire to make music is a truly life-changing event. Gibson Gives–a 501(c)(3) committed to introduce, inspire, and amplify the power of music through guitars–believes that now more than ever we must band together to support programs for music students. Gibson Gives is committed to making the world a better place through music by creating, developing, supporting programs, and working with other non-profit organizations, in their efforts to advance youth-focused and healing music initiatives. 100% of all donations to and from Gibson Gives go towards giving the gift of music. Since inception, Gibson Gives has provided thousands of guitars and related value-in-kind of more than $30 million. In mid-2019, Gibson Gives committed to donating 1,000 guitars over the next 1000 days and is ahead, having donated 760 guitars in less than a year’s time. Gibson Gives has been a longtime supporter of The Recording Academy’s MusiCares, played a lead role in the ‘Do it for the Love’ Foundation, outfitted underserved schools and national organizations with multiple guitars for their music departments including Gallatin High School (Bozeman, MT) and Maplewood High School (Nashville, TN), Life by Music (Las Vegas, NV) and worked with the Save the Music national foundation to supply guitars for 12 schools. GG partnered with MyMusicRx®–Children’s Cancer Association to bring tailored music lessons to hospitalized kids and teens facing cancer and other serious illnesses and is a partner of Guitars4Vets helping returning U.S. military veterans with PTSD recover by donating over 60 guitars and a lifetime supply of 19,000 string sets. Gibson Gives believes investing in music education will yield better people, better leaders, and a better world. Gibson Gives is changing lives…one guitar at a time. For more information, visit: www.gibsongives.org.
Music Makes Us® is a collective impact model that brings together Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), the Mayor’s Office and the Nashville music community to provide meaningful support for our music programs. Our goal is to increase access, participation and quality of music education for ALL MNPS students. The Music Makes Us initiative is administered by the Visual and Performing Arts department at Metro Nashville Public Schools. A Music Makes Us® advisory council advances the goals of Music Makes Us® and supports the sustainability of the public/private partnership through both strategic and tactical efforts, including the cultivation of community allies and funding sources. Learn more by contacting us at info@musicmakesus.org or visiting our web site at https://musicmakesus.org/.
