The day the music was reborn: School visit inspires VH1 program
Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) -- When John Sykes saw a band of Brooklyn schoolkids playing in a musical graveyard of stringless violins and taped-up drums, it felt like the day the music died.
"I was shocked because I saw all of these incredibly enthusiastic kids ... had almost no facilities for music, arts, phys ed, anything," recalled Sykes, then president of the VH1 music channel. "Here we were making billions of dollars as a corporation, and a school just a few miles away had next to nothing."
The principal of P.S. 58 told Sykes she could revive the music program for a mere $5,000. "You'll have the $5,000. Go get the instruments," the music executive responded -- and The VH1 Save The Music Foundation was born.
A decade later, the foundation has tuned up music programs in more than 1,500 schools nationwide, helping one million students enjoy the benefits of music education rather than the sounds of silence -- and raising $40 million along the way.
The foundation provides seed money of $25,000 to $30,000 to buy instruments or build laboratories with keyboards, guitars or string instruments. It requires schools to hire an instrumental music teacher, provide music instruction and store the instruments.
The foundation marks its 10th anniversary with a celebration Thursday at Lincoln Center, where Sykes is among the honorees.
In a recent interview, Sykes said he developed the concept and name for the foundation in 1997 while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan after his grade school visit. He envisioned restoring music to one school, then one city, then one state and eventually the nation.
"I was so excited," he said.
Back at his office, Sykes gathered his staff and solicited donations. By the end of the day, P.S. 58 had its $5,000. He expanded fundraising efforts beyond his staff, to include the whole company. He approached music merchants and corporations. He even sent President Clinton a letter.
The sax-playing president even wrote back.
"I'd love to give you one of my saxophones," Sykes recalled Clinton telling him. "Had I not had a music program, I wouldn't be president today,"
The president invited Sykes to the White House. Before long, he had donated his saxophone and agreed to promote their efforts.
In 1999, the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted the Concert of the Century on the White House lawn to raise money for the foundation. They will be honored at Thursday's celebration, along with Mariah Carey and NAMM, The International Music Products Association. Scheduled to perform are Jon Bon Jovi, John Mayer and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
Despite the successes, continued cutbacks in public school budgets nationwide have left plenty of work to be done, while studies have shown that programs in music, dance, visual arts and theater education improve the cognitive development of children.
"I hope we find a day where music and art programs aren't on the chopping block," said Tom Calderone, chairman of the Save the Music Foundation.
Paul E. Cothran, the program's executive director, said the need will remain strong as long as schools emphasize standardized test scores over developing skills necessary to be creative thinkers.
"Schools with high academic success are those with robust music programs," he said in April as he watched more than a dozen children working at a keyboard laboratory at Harlem's P.S. 161. The school had no music program until VH1 Save The Music donated the laboratory in 2002.
As he spoke, the school's music teacher, Jan Rudd, helped the 4th and 5th grade students write a song. On the wall behind her were pictures of Bach, Mozart, Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and others.
Also looking on was Laurie Schopp Lock, a VH1 program director.
"Music can really save children," she said.
She recalled visiting Chalmet High School in New Orleans in the spring after Hurricane Katrina, just after new instruments arrived to replace those destroyed in flooding.
"When you lose your music, that's a major hit," said Wayne Warner, the Louisiana school's principal.
He recalled watching Lock and other VH1 Save The Music officials watching the opening of boxes of new instruments and an impromptu concert.
"It was one of the most moving days of my life," Lock said. "I walked in and got all choked up. The principal came out and said, `I cry every day."'
After Hurricane Katrina, VH1 donated more than $300,000 to schools in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. New Orleans schools, which had received $500,000 in instruments for 21 schools prior to the hurricane, received much of the money.
Lock said some cities including Milwaukee, Rochester, N.Y., Newark, N.J., and Hartford, Conn., now have music programs at all public elementary schools. The majority of Milwaukee's 104 elementary schools had no music programs when VH1 arrived in 2001, she said.
Cities including Baltimore, Denver, St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., and Houston are getting close to 100 percent, she said.
Sykes said he always saw the program going beyond music education.
"It was a metaphor that we had to make education a priority again in our nation's public schools, to use our channel to send that message out wrapped neatly around a save the music pitch," he said.
The artists get it, he says, which explains why big name entertainers have lent themselves to the effort.
"The artists, even those who don't understand it's more than an art, they'll hop in a car and donate whatever they can, do raffles and anything to raise money," he said.
Sykes said he returned to the Brooklyn school where the program started a year after his initial visit and listened as a "beautiful orchestra played everything from Beethoven to Barry White."
He was even more pleased to hear grades were higher and absenteeism was down throughout the school. His most moving moment, he said, came reading a letter from a parent in the South Bronx who recalled the transformation of his truant, lethargic, trouble making son.
"Once his son began playing an instrument he gained a new sense of pride, never missed a day of school and saw his grades skyrocket. He said, `Music saved my son's life."'
"I was shocked because I saw all of these incredibly enthusiastic kids ... had almost no facilities for music, arts, phys ed, anything," recalled Sykes, then president of the VH1 music channel. "Here we were making billions of dollars as a corporation, and a school just a few miles away had next to nothing."
The principal of P.S. 58 told Sykes she could revive the music program for a mere $5,000. "You'll have the $5,000. Go get the instruments," the music executive responded -- and The VH1 Save The Music Foundation was born.
A decade later, the foundation has tuned up music programs in more than 1,500 schools nationwide, helping one million students enjoy the benefits of music education rather than the sounds of silence -- and raising $40 million along the way.
The foundation provides seed money of $25,000 to $30,000 to buy instruments or build laboratories with keyboards, guitars or string instruments. It requires schools to hire an instrumental music teacher, provide music instruction and store the instruments.
The foundation marks its 10th anniversary with a celebration Thursday at Lincoln Center, where Sykes is among the honorees.
In a recent interview, Sykes said he developed the concept and name for the foundation in 1997 while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan after his grade school visit. He envisioned restoring music to one school, then one city, then one state and eventually the nation.
"I was so excited," he said.
Back at his office, Sykes gathered his staff and solicited donations. By the end of the day, P.S. 58 had its $5,000. He expanded fundraising efforts beyond his staff, to include the whole company. He approached music merchants and corporations. He even sent President Clinton a letter.
The sax-playing president even wrote back.
"I'd love to give you one of my saxophones," Sykes recalled Clinton telling him. "Had I not had a music program, I wouldn't be president today,"
The president invited Sykes to the White House. Before long, he had donated his saxophone and agreed to promote their efforts.
In 1999, the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted the Concert of the Century on the White House lawn to raise money for the foundation. They will be honored at Thursday's celebration, along with Mariah Carey and NAMM, The International Music Products Association. Scheduled to perform are Jon Bon Jovi, John Mayer and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
Despite the successes, continued cutbacks in public school budgets nationwide have left plenty of work to be done, while studies have shown that programs in music, dance, visual arts and theater education improve the cognitive development of children.
"I hope we find a day where music and art programs aren't on the chopping block," said Tom Calderone, chairman of the Save the Music Foundation.
Paul E. Cothran, the program's executive director, said the need will remain strong as long as schools emphasize standardized test scores over developing skills necessary to be creative thinkers.
"Schools with high academic success are those with robust music programs," he said in April as he watched more than a dozen children working at a keyboard laboratory at Harlem's P.S. 161. The school had no music program until VH1 Save The Music donated the laboratory in 2002.
As he spoke, the school's music teacher, Jan Rudd, helped the 4th and 5th grade students write a song. On the wall behind her were pictures of Bach, Mozart, Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and others.
Also looking on was Laurie Schopp Lock, a VH1 program director.
"Music can really save children," she said.
She recalled visiting Chalmet High School in New Orleans in the spring after Hurricane Katrina, just after new instruments arrived to replace those destroyed in flooding.
"When you lose your music, that's a major hit," said Wayne Warner, the Louisiana school's principal.
He recalled watching Lock and other VH1 Save The Music officials watching the opening of boxes of new instruments and an impromptu concert.
"It was one of the most moving days of my life," Lock said. "I walked in and got all choked up. The principal came out and said, `I cry every day."'
After Hurricane Katrina, VH1 donated more than $300,000 to schools in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. New Orleans schools, which had received $500,000 in instruments for 21 schools prior to the hurricane, received much of the money.
Lock said some cities including Milwaukee, Rochester, N.Y., Newark, N.J., and Hartford, Conn., now have music programs at all public elementary schools. The majority of Milwaukee's 104 elementary schools had no music programs when VH1 arrived in 2001, she said.
Cities including Baltimore, Denver, St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., and Houston are getting close to 100 percent, she said.
Sykes said he always saw the program going beyond music education.
"It was a metaphor that we had to make education a priority again in our nation's public schools, to use our channel to send that message out wrapped neatly around a save the music pitch," he said.
The artists get it, he says, which explains why big name entertainers have lent themselves to the effort.
"The artists, even those who don't understand it's more than an art, they'll hop in a car and donate whatever they can, do raffles and anything to raise money," he said.
Sykes said he returned to the Brooklyn school where the program started a year after his initial visit and listened as a "beautiful orchestra played everything from Beethoven to Barry White."
He was even more pleased to hear grades were higher and absenteeism was down throughout the school. His most moving moment, he said, came reading a letter from a parent in the South Bronx who recalled the transformation of his truant, lethargic, trouble making son.
"Once his son began playing an instrument he gained a new sense of pride, never missed a day of school and saw his grades skyrocket. He said, `Music saved my son's life."'
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