Dear band parents and students,
Welcome to the New Year! We are excited about the full slate of opportunities ahead of us and we are eager to convey good news about the value of music education for your child.
Often a single concert or presentation measures the success of a music program. While it is true that a performance demonstrates the students’ mastery of skills, it is only one aspect of our comprehensive music curriculum. Music classes in our program are designed to prepare students to be responsible citizens in tomorrow’s society. What is it about music learning that offers young musicians a head start?
*   Music develops interpersonal skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication, negotiation and working with others; the basic personal attributes required for problem-solving in our modern day workplace.
*   Music stimulates the creative, curious, and imaginative mind Рthe mental building blocks for critical thinking and self-motivation.
*¬†¬† Since much of music is active learning, it links the creative thought process to reality. The following quote is an excerpt from The Value of the Arts, created by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities – 1993:
“Some skills taught only in the arts are as important to science as they are to art. Among these tools are playing, abstracting, building models and recognizing patterns. Non-verbal skills allow people to imagine and visualize new realities before they can be proven by logic or scientific experiment”.
When children are in the act of making decisions based on present moment choices, they replicate the same thought processes used in expressing music. This is a human quality that must be developed; it is the foundation for all problem-solving skills.
When we take a holistic view of music learning, we develop a new perspective and appreciation for music’s influence on children. Music is important in the life of children.