New Haven Independent

Superintendent Reginald Mayo, East Rock Principal Michael Conte, and Ross/Woodward Principal Bernadette Strode were getting an onstage trombone lesson — a demonstration of the kind of teaching that goes on in those schools everyday, thanks to the $50,000 of donated instruments from the Comcast-supported VH1 Save the Music Foundation. East Rock Magnet School and Ross/Woodward are two of 1,200 urban schools nationwide restoring cut music programs, and the pilot sites for programs to come at all of New Haven’s public schools, Save the Music Foundation director Laurie Schopp said.

“They did good, but they need a lot more help,” said Joseph Gonzalez, 13, of his principals’ brass efforts. Gonzalez would know: He is trombone section leader for the Ross/Woodward band. He’d never seen an instrument before the Save the Music program came to his school. “Except maybe on a commercial. I brought it home, my parents were like, What is that?”

Regina Lilly-Warner, the supervisor of music for the city’s schools, said that now all schools are vying to be the next selected for VH1 Save the Music Foundation programs, which supports teachers trained in instrumental, choral, and general music, and provides instruments that students get to take home after three lessons.

“Now all the principals, especially the elementary principals, are saying We want it, We want it!” Lilly-Warner said. Ross/Woodward and East Rock were selected to go first because she and Superintendent Mayo “knew these principals would really embrace the program.”

“A year ago, we had no music program,” said Principal Bernadette Strode, addressing her own student body and their guests in the Ross/Woodward cafeteria at the ceremony Tuesday morning. “This time last year we were begging and pleading — and now our students have instruments, they take pride in their music. Even attendance has improved!”

Superintendent Mayo thanked Lilly-Warner for doing some begging and pleading of her own, crediting her with drawing the Save the Music Foundation’s attention to New Haven. “Thank you to Dr. Warner for rejuvenating music in this city!” said Mayo, who praised music education for giving kids an opportunity to express themselves in creative ways, and shift focus away from test scores. “We want people to be broad in all fronts of life and not just drill drill drill for high-stakes testing.”

Spreading that awareness of the importance of music is why the foundation’s director, Laurie Schopp, a violinist and vocalist herself, does what she does, she said. Her sights are on changing public perception toward recognition that music is not a “frill” but a key intelligence area for some learners, and a benefit to all students. She said her original thought was to teach music in an urban school, and “people were like great, good luck. You’ll build a program and the next day it’ll get cut.” The Save the Music Foundation is out to change that, putting back the programs cut from so many urban schools in the 70s and 80s, Schopp said.

Keyonna Cooper, 11, said she practices her clarinet for two hours a day at a friend’s house — and when she first brought it home, her mom played a song for the first time since she’d been in high school, Cooper said.

Kalea Coles (pictured demonstrating flute technique), 10, the section leader for flute, said she’d learned from her teachers that music “takes a lot of practice and a lot of listening to what it sounds like.” She, like trumpet player Javon Taylor, 10, teaches her siblings some notes at home.

“My brother tried to make fun of me,” said Taylor, “but then he tried it himself.”

Clarinetist and 34-year music teacher William Freeman said that since the instruments had arrived at East Rock, “Students have been beating down my doors. I have 45 drummers!” he said. “As long as the kids want to learn, we can go from there.”