October 16, 2000

Welcome to the latest American Music Conference news update. Our goal is to inform you and your staff on the latest trends, research, education, and advocacy to help you in your music education activities. We will send additional updates from time to time. Please submit comments or questions to joel@amc-music.org. For more information please visit the AMC web site at amc-music.org.

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Contents

AMC web site featured in USA Today's "Hot Sites"
Harvard's "Project Zero"
AMC, Disney, Carnation Partner with American Baby Magazine
Smithsonian Piano 300
Music of the Heart on home video
Einstein Kit

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AMC's new web site was featured in USA Today's "Hot Sites" on October 11th. The site was listed under "Music Activism" and had featured the following statement: "In our Net-activism category: Get your kids' schools pumped about providing music instruction with an Advocacy Toolkit from the American Music Conference. In addition to sample letters and news releases, the site provides research findings to help make a case for richer music education programs. http://www.amc-music.org"

The listing will remain on USA Today's site for months and will continue to bring new advocates to the AMC site to further our pro music-making cause. Check it out at http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/arch.htm

Harvard's Project Zero "Reviewing Education and the Arts Project" (REAP) is now out and manages to be heartening and frustrating at the same time. The study is a very comprehensive look at the arts and academic achievement. There are some strong takeaway points from this study including the need for much more research in this field. While it is difficult to prove causal relationships, the study strongly links music and arts education with improved student performance. For example, while failing to establish anything more than a correlational relationship between the arts education and SAT scores the study states, " Nonetheless, it is striking that students who study the arts are consistently higher academic achievers than students who do not study the arts". The Executive Summary is available online at http://pzweb.harvard.edu/Research/REAP.htm. The full report is available through the University of Illinois Press as "The Journal of Aesthetic Education volume 34, numbers 3-4, Fall/Winter 2000. I highly encourage everyone to read the report. This is a very complex issue and one that will be highlighted in the press often in the coming months. We must be prepared to accurately represent our position.

AMC, NAMM, Walt Disney and Carnation partnered to promote music making and young children in American Baby Magazine. AMC's music making message was featured in a full page "advatorial" in the September issue of American Baby (circulation of 1.1 Million) and in 750,000 brochures distributed to hospitals and doctors' offices around the country. This will help spread the word on the importance of music making in the development of young children to their parents and caregivers.

The fall issue of Music Research Notes is now available. If you would like to receive a complementary copy please call AMC or go online at the AMC website under "MuSICA". The newsletter is published 3 times a year and contains summaries of recent studies and editorial by Dr. Norman Weinberger, Executive Director of the International Foundation for Music Research. The newsletter has been redesigned for increased readability. Back issues are also available on the AMC web site.

The Smithsonian Piano 300 celebration continues to draw record crowds. The live concert Gala (hosted by Billy Joel) filmed for PBS is now available on Sony CD and home video. The Gala will air on PBS Nationally as a full two hour special on Wednesday, November 29th. (Check local listings for exact date and time in your area) The second PBS show "Biography of the Piano" is being filmed now and will be completed in mid-January. Both shows contain pro music-making messages and promote music education. There are weekly concerts in the Exhibition (Tues. and Thurs.) and we encourage everyone to visit this once in-a-lifetime exhibit when in the DC area.

"Music of the Heart" will be available for home video sale this month. Each copy of the video will feature an 8-page insert branded to AMC on music education and highlight teachers from around the country who are making a difference in kids' lives. There is a national ad campaign for the video featuring the AMC and Procter & Gamble partnership including P & G's upcoming donation of $25,000 to AMC to promote music education.

Is your school music program in trouble? Do not get caught without the proper tools for the job. As Brian Majeski, editor of Music Trades magazine stated, " At any given time, music programs are under siege at some of the nation's 50,000 school districts. To help retailers and concerned community members make a case for music; NAMM and AMC have put together the best package of information we've ever seen. The kit contains ample scientific evidence on the academic benefits of music study, a video linking music with cerebral power, and even a Power Point CD-ROM for making a professional case before a school board. This kit makes it easy for just about anyone to make an irrefutable case for maintaining music in a school system"

Call AMC to order your "Einstein" music advocacy kit today!