The Music of the Season

 

There's just something about Christmas music that helps set the mood. Whether it's practicing the piano solos I play for church service preludes myself or singing "Joy to the World!" with people from several different churches during a community Christmas service, it just wouldn't be the same without the music of the season.

This month has been rich in music of all types - from school programs to church to professional musicians. And it's made my month "harmonious" - so to speak. 

Our first concert was at Wichita's Orpheum Theater. It featured pianist Jim Brickman with father-daughter singing duo, Mat and Savanna Shaw. The Shaws began recording videos during the pandemic, and I'm a big fan. I hate to admit it, but I was less familiar with Jim Brickman, though he's had a long and storied career as a solo pianist. But the whole thing concert was great. (They sang the song on the video above during the Wichita concert. However, I was a good girl and didn't record or take photos during the concert since the audience was asked to resist that urge. Still, I wanted to give you a taste of what we enjoyed that night. I love the message of the song!)

I did take the photo of the piano before the concert ever started, and I love the black and white version.

The other professional concert was a last-minute addition to my schedule, thanks to my friend and PEO sister, Okema, who had an extra ticket to The Texas Tenors. 

That concert was last Saturday night at the Fox Theater in Hutchinson. 

And surprise! Her tickets were on the third row. 

Before the concert began, the general manager gave the go-ahead for photos, though he said audio and video recordings were prohibited. These three classically-trained tenors were fantastic. I'd seen them on television several times, but I'd never attended a concert in person.

Again, the lighting for the show added to the beauty of the music.  Their pianist was phenomenal, too. (That level of talent kind of makes this amateur a little "green" with envy - though I suppose green is an appropriate color for the season).

I promise I didn't record it myself, but I found their same rendition of "O Holy Night!" on YouTube.

 

But it doesn't have to be professional musicians to get me in the mood for Christmas. We also got to go to Kinley's and Brooke's school music concerts. 

 Brooke's was first up. There were four classrooms of second graders on stage that evening.

Brooke had a speaking part and did a great job.

Kinley's fifth grade music concert was the following night. In their school district, fifth graders must choose one of three options: choir, band or orchestra. I was surprised at how few chose choir, but Kinley was one of them.

She played the jingle bells in one song.

 And this was a small video clip from a crowd-pleasing song. 

Grandma had to have a photo of Kinley and Summer at home before we left for the concert.

And Kinley went along with a photo on stage after the concert, too. How'd she get to be so grown-up looking?

It's been a wonderful month of music - and it's not over yet!

 ***

I seem to have taken an unplanned hiatus from blogging. I had several homemade Christmas presents that took a lot of time and effort. I don't feel all that retired, since I continue to complete my weekday KFRM radio reports and devote a lot of volunteer hours to the church and other community ventures. So blogging fell by the wayside for a bit. As my Facebook memories have surfaced this month, I've also noticed a lot of cattle moving and feeding blog posts. I am thankful that I'm retired from the feed truck with wind chills forecast at well-below zero later this week! 

Let All My Life Be Music

Mary Beth Cunningham and me, July 1975

And on a thrilling major chord

There let life end.

We said goodbye on Sunday.

Mary Beth Cunningham was one of my private voice teachers during high school. I started voice lessons when I was in junior high. My first teacher moved, and, at the time, I was devastated. I didn't like change as a child any more than I like it now.

But it turned out to be one of those blessings in disguise, though I certainly don't want to imply anything against my first teacher. For a year or so, Mrs. Cunningham didn't have room to add me to her studio. Thankfully, my parents convinced Nancy Kerr to teach me, though she wasn't teaching full-time. She is a phenomenal soprano, and I learned a great deal from her in my short time under her tutelage. I have always been grateful.

I then became Mrs. Cunningham's student, and we finished the final two years of my high school career together.

I wasn't much of an athlete. I was out for sports, but I spent my time scrimmaging against the first-team girls during practice and holding down the end of the bench during games. I was more known for singing The Star-Spangled Banner in my basketball uniform than I was for actually playing ball in it.

Music was my thing, especially vocal music. Mrs. Cunningham believed in pushing students. I remember the first song I sang for my initial voice teacher was "Tammy," from a television show. Mrs. Kerr and Mrs. Cunningham had me singing soprano arias. Mrs. Cunningham believed in working hard and striving for excellence. It was a message that resonated with this first-born overachiever.

Because I have accompanied for school, I would sometimes see Mrs. Cunningham at music festivals, where she still served as a judge. Watching her work with middle school students always took me back to my days standing at her piano, where she taught me to breath deeply, to enunciate and, most importantly, to interpret the music. But, even years after my lessons ended, I never could bring myself to call her anything other than "Mrs. Cunningham."

Yesterday morning at church, I sang a solo for special music. As Mrs. Cunningham's vocal student, we were always working on a religious solo. Each summer during the church choir hiatus, I'd sing at both my church, Pratt First United Methodist, and at hers, Pratt Presbyterian. After I sang yesterday, I shared with the congregation how influential Mrs. Cunningham had been on my life, and that she still impacts my life 40 years after walking out of her living room studio after my final lesson with her. It's a good lesson in how people touch us, and a reminder of the great connections we can make by using our God-given gifts in love and service to others - no matter our vocation, interests or talents.

My sister, Darci, also took voice lessons from Mrs. Cunningham, but she and my sister, Lisa, have always preferred piano. My brother, Kent, had her for private lessons, and she was also his high school vocal teacher at Pratt High School, where she directed him as the lead in The Music Man. My niece, Madison, was the last in our family to take private lessons from Mrs. Cunningham. (Kent & Madi sang a beautiful duet version of The Lord's Prayer at yesterday's memorial.)

After my senior year in high school and before I went to K-State, I gave a senior recital. It was 40 years ago this month on July 27, 1975. My sister, Lisa, and Mrs. Cunningham accompanied me. I sang several arias, along with art songs and selections from musicals.

One of the songs that afternoon was called, Let All My Life Be Music by Charles G. Spross.  (Click the link for Ben Heppner's version.) When I got to college and wanted to sing it in one of my voice classes, my college instructor thought it was a little too melodramatic. It probably was. But I always loved it anyway.

As I've remembered Mrs. Cunningham, those words came back to me:

Let all my life be music
Ah, let the heart of me be as a harp
Where joy and pain are blended harmony
Strike! Strike! The harp that is my soul
Though pain or joy it bring
My only sorrow to be dumb,

My only joy to sing!
And when the Great Musician plays
In notes of joy or pain
Then let my heart respond and sing
Though in a minor strain
A wondrous song! A living song! A rapturous song! Oh send!

And on a thrilling major chord

There let life end.

During the memorial service, a choir composed of her students sang, directed by her former colleague, Don Buhler. We got together Saturday morning to practice, and, by Sunday afternoon, we were performing four songs. There was a wide age range -- from high school students, who just lost their private teacher, to people like me, who still remember the lessons after 40 years. Others were in her school or church choirs sometime during her 56 years in music education.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Suzanne, for snapping a photo

The final song was Battle Hymn of the Republic. For former Pratt High School choir members, this selection was a quintessential program finale for their former teacher.

And as the final notes in four-part harmony drifted away on the stage of Liberty Middle School in Pratt, I thought again to the lines from "Let All My Life Be Music."

And when the Great Musician plays
In notes of joy or pain
Then let my heart respond and sing...

And on a thrilling major chord

There let life end.

It was a fitting tribute to a life well lived.

Thank you, Mrs. Cunningham -- 1936-2015

Start the Music!

For the first time in 20 years, I'm not playing the piano for the spring semester at school. They are in much more competent hands, those of a true pianist, my good friend, Linda, who has also been accompanying for the past several years.

I've always been more of a vocalist than pianist. If my piano teacher, Mrs. Lighter, were still alive, you could ask her. I was the least talented of the Moore sisters who sat at the piano bench in front of her baby grand piano each week.

(From our 1965 Christmas card, from left to right: Darci, me and Lisa)

I am sure she would be amazed that I lasted this long!

(The piece was called Drifting Moon)

It feels a little discordant to not have that daily appointment at the piano bench, but a shifting schedule at school made it the right decision for me. I may still help marginally with solos for festivals, but Linda will be the accompanist. And that's OK.

But just because I'm not in the classroom every Monday through Friday this semester, it doesn't mean I still don't find overwhelming value in music education in the public schools.

Yesterday, I saw a link via Facebook about a new study from the University of Vermont's College of Medicine about the value of music.  I emailed both Jill and Brent (and didn't hear back from either one, by the way.)

Brent has said more than once:  "Giving me piano lessons was like throwing money down the drain." I've always vehemently disagreed, though I realize he will never accompany a classroom of vocal music students or even sit at a piano and play it for fun.

 

1997 piano recital - Jill and Brent with Mrs. Dorothy Trinkle, their piano teacher.

Every week, I'd drive them to Dorothy Trinkle's rural Preston home for piano lessons. She deserves a medal, by the way, for teaching piano so many years to so many children, including my reluctant pair.  Their music-loving mama also forced them to take private vocal music lessons for several years and to play instruments in the school band.

Was it child abuse? I think not. And the University of Vermont study is backing me up:

James Hudziak and his colleagues analyzed the brain scans of 232 children ages 6 to 18, looking for relationships between cortical thickness and musical training. Previous studies the team had performed revealed that anxiety, depression, attention problems and aggression correspond with changes to cortical thickness. Hudziak and his team sought to discover whether a "positive activity" like musical training could affect the opposite changes in young minds.


"What we found was the more a child trained on an instrument," Hudziak told The Washington Post, “it accelerated cortical organization in attention skill, anxiety management and emotional control."

The study found increased thickness in parts of the brain responsible for executive functioning, which includes working memory, attentional control and organizational skills. In short, music actually helped kids become more well-rounded.

My two turned out OK. They seem to have several of those attributes. Maybe it wasn't child abuse after all.

Start the Music!

This little singer is one reason I keep accompanying at school. While this Grandma thinks that Miss Kinley is advanced for her age, she wasn't quite ready to join the contingent of soloists at the middle school music festival we hosted yesterday at Stafford Schools.

When we Skype with her, singing songs is part of the routine.

"Grandma sing," she encourages as we give a rendition of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" or "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep."

"Grandpa sing," she insists as we sing "ABCs" for the third time.

She's a girl after my own heart when it comes to music. 

A photo from the archives, June 2013

This is my 19th year accompanying for Stafford Schools. Sometimes I wonder why I keep doing it. I especially wonder it on days like yesterday, when it was Heart of the Plains League middle school music festival day. I didn't have nearly as many accompaniments to play this year. But, for this Type A perfectionist, I still want to do my very best to accompany the students who've made the commitment to music this year.

I love music. That's why I do it. I certainly have no illusions that I am the most competent accompanist around. The paycheck I open each month doesn't come close to covering the gas it takes to drive to town, the interruption to the day or the investment of practice time at home that is never covered by a time sheet. So I look at my time at school as community service and a way to share my love of music with others.

Music isn't really about black notes on a white page. It isn't just about breathing correctly (though it certainly helps). You can know the right fingering to play a "C" or "D" on a baritone or saxophone and still not truly make music.

True music is found in telling the story through song. It's a story that's told at middle school music festivals ... and at high school contests ... in church choir lofts .... singing in the shower ... or belting out songs as you drive down a country road.  

Long after these middle school soloists have forgotten the words to the songs they sang yesterday, I hope they'll remember a piano player who sat beside them, who cared about them, cared about the music they were making and wanted them to do their very best. 

I doubt that Kinley will ever live close enough to me that I'll get to accompany her at a middle school music festival. But I hope there will be some other accompanist who will be on that piano bench, cheering her on. 

Bull in a China Shop

One of Brent's favorite piano solos was called "Bull in a China Shop" by George Anson. Mrs. Trinkle was one smart piano teacher. Brent was a reluctant musician at best. But how could he resist a piano solo that encouraged some calculated banging around on the piano?

A few years ago, Brent told us: "Giving me piano lessons was kind of like throwing money down the drain."

I gave him an unqualified, "No, it wasn't!" And I still believe that, even though he probably hasn't touched a piano since he left the confines of Mrs. Trinkle's piano studio at her Preston farm house. He draws the same conclusion about his few years of mother-imposed voice lessons. (Wasn't I a mean mother, trying to instill a little music appreciation in my children?)

1997 piano recital - Jill and Brent with Mrs. Dorothy Trinkle, their piano teacher.

However, those music lessons probably helped Brent learn his trombone and Jill learn the clarinet in the school band. Research shows that music also helps students comprehend math, which is no small thing when half their genetic pool included a math-challenged mother. ACT scores for high school musicians are typically higher than their peers. 

A 2007 Harris Interactive Poll of working adults indicated that music education impacted five skill areas: ability to work toward common goals, striving for excellence in group settings, disciplined approach to solving problems, creative problem solving and flexibility in work situations.

Harris Interactive Poll, 2007

Sometimes I wonder why I continue accompanying at school. I especially wonder it on days like this one when we are at the Heart of the Plains League middle school music festival, and my nerves kick in. We'll be at the school by 6:30 and on the bus by 6:45 AM for the trip to Burrton. 

This is my 18th year accompanying for Stafford Schools. I don't have nearly as many accompaniments to play this year. But, for this Type A personality perfectionist, I still want to do my very best to accompany the students who've made the commitment to music this year. I certainly would prefer not to have an unintentional reenactment of "Bull in a China Shop."

I love music. That's why I do it. I certainly have no illusions that I am the most competent accompanist around. The paycheck I open each month doesn't come close to covering the gas it takes to drive to town, the interruption to the day or the investment of practice time at home that is never covered by a time sheet. So I look at my time at school as community service and a way to share my love of music with others.

Music isn't really about black notes on a white page. It isn't just about breathing correctly (though it certainly helps). You can know the right fingering to play a "C" or "D" on a trumpet or clarinet and still not truly make music.

True music is found in the crescendos and decrescendos. It's found in the pianissimo and the double forte. It's found in telling the story through song.

It's a story that's told at middle school music festivals ... and at high school regionals ... and in church choir lofts ... and singing in the shower or as you drive down a country road. 

And, even if those middle school musicians some day think that their time practicing for a solo was like throwing time straight down the drain, I hope they'll remember a piano player beside them who cared about them and cared about the music. 

Won't you say a little prayer for our middle school musicians today? (And one for Mr. Westbrook and me would be nice, too. Thanks, friends!)

Marc Chagall stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago

Play the music, not the instrument.

~Author Unknown

 

How Can I Keep From Singing?

 

Goosebumps on top of goosebumps: That's what happens when you combine 234 hand-picked singers, an array of challenging music and a visionary director. Throw in a cello, clarinet, violins and drums. Mix well. And you will definitely be "stirred."

I went to the Kansas Music Educators' Association All-State Choir concert last Saturday at Century II in Wichita. My niece, Madison, was singing in her third and final concert with the high school KMEA honor choir. (She was one of 19 singers who had qualified for the choir during all three years of eligibility.)

On Saturday, I'd helped with set up, serving and clean up for a funeral dinner at church, and I sang at the 11 o'clock funeral. I sang at a 2 PM funeral at another church. There were 14 inches of snow on the ground, and we were expecting more. It would have been easy to just stay home. I'm so glad I didn't. 

I wish every middle school music student could have seen that concert. (For that matter, I wish every high school student could hear it, too. Middle school is just on my mind because that's the age group I work with as an accompanist, something I've been doing for the past 18 years.)

Yes, "my" students could hear it through a recording, though no recordings of the concert are allowed during the event itself. (And people must have adhered to the rules. There weren't postings to youtube.) I'm sure the professional recording will be wonderful. But there was just something about being there that I don't think can be duplicated. You could see the singers were engaged. They were watching the director. They had their mouths open. They were making music.

Stained glass at the Youthville Chapel, Newton, KS

The clinician was Edith Copley, professor of music and director of choral studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Among the seven selections she chose for the honor choir was "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

Copley directs many honor choirs and often uses that song because of its message for young musicians, and really, for all of us:

One of my messages to the students this week is this: Sing for life. After you graduate from high school, sing at college. After college, sing in your church choir or a community choir - no matter your profession. Singing is good for you physically, and it's good for your soul.

Edith A. Copley, Conductor/Clinician, Kansas Music Educators' Association All-State Choir 

Music is good for even more. A program note stated:

The College Entrance Examination Board found that students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on math than students with no arts participation among college-bound seniors.

Profile of SAT program test takers, Princeton, N.J.:

The College Entrance Examination Board

Dwayne Dunn, chair of the KMEA All-State Choir, added that ACT scores are also impacted by music participation:

The national average ACT score is 21.
Kansas' average ACT score is 22.
The average ACT for the 234 students who participated in the all-state choir this year was 27.26.

The 8-part harmonies in one of the songs were spectacular. But the unison when all 234 voices were on the same note? After 18 hours of rehearsals (plus lots of nose-to-the-grindstone time at home before the singers ever arrived in Wichita), it literally brought tears to my eyes. (My kids are rolling their eyes right now. And that's OK.)

Marc Chagall stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago

How Can I Keep From Singing? (From a Quaker hymn) ... How indeed?

My life goes on in endless song
Above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

Stained glass at Trinity United Methodist Church, Hutchinson, KS

For Love of Music

Marc Chagall stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago

A painter paints pictures on canvas.
But musicians paint their pictures on silence.

~Leopold Stokowski

Music isn't really about black notes on a white page. It isn't just about breathing correctly (though it certainly helps). You can know the right fingering to play a "C" or "D" on a trumpet or clarinet and still not truly make music.

True music is found in the crescendos and decrescendos. It's found in the pianissimo and the double forte. It's found in telling the story through song. It's even told in the silence ... that little pause before delivering the final phrase.

Today, I'll be in a school Suburban, on the road by 6:30 AM and journeying toward South Barber Schools in Kiowa. It's middle school music festival day, the day toward which we've been working since January. I have 26 different accompaniments to play - two choir pieces, three vocal ensembles and the rest, vocal and instrumental solos.

In some ways, it feels like we've been practicing forever. In other ways, I think, "If only we had one more day to tell them this ..."

I've been accompanying for the school for 17 years now. I first started when Brent was a first grader.

I'm not doing it to get rich. But then again ... maybe I am. Maybe I get rich when I hear a girl lean into a musical phrase, and I get goosebumps. It might be when a singer discovers the way to get the music delivered beyond the front row. Or maybe it's when the drummer and I actually end the piece at the same time - a minor miracle!

Hmmmm ... I guess I'm getting rich after all.

My prayer for the middle school musicians today is that they do their best. Yes, I want them to breathe correctly. I hope they sing or play the right notes. It would be great if they remember the words. But more than that, I want them to deliver not only the notes, but the music.

Play the music, not the instrument.

~Author Unknown

That goes for the accompanist, too. And if you would, please say a little prayer for me, Mr. Gill and all the students.

Music washes away from the soul
the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach

I won't be sitting still long enough today to collect any dust!

Control Freak

KMEA All-State Choir, 2012

The lyrics to one of the songs said it all:

Listen to a jubilant song
Our spirit sings a jubilant song
A life full of music
A life full of harmony

(This is Listen to a Jubilant Song by Tim Sarsany. It's not the KMEA choir, but a similar honor choir in New England. I guess everyone in the KMEA audience followed the directions and didn't record the concert ... or at least it's not posted to youtube yet!)

The 256 voices in the Kansas Music Educators Association All-State Choir found that "life of music and harmony" during a performance on Saturday.

They came together from all corners of Kansas. Some were from tiny 1A schools. For those students, the 256 people in the choir represented more people than their entire student body (and maybe double or triple!). Others were from 6A schools and may have had 256 students or more in just the junior class.

But regardless of zip code, they came together last Thursday and practiced 15 hours with clinician Kenneth Fulton, a music professor at Louisiana State University, before giving the Saturday afternoon concert.

It was simply amazing - one goosebump experience after another. I was there to watch my niece, Madison, but it would have been amazing even if I hadn't known a single singer.

(My brother, Kent, niece Madi and sister-in-law Suzanne after the concert.)

As I sat in the darkened Century II Concert Hall, I scanned the faces of those 256 teenagers on the stage. All eyes were focused on center stage and their director, Dr. Fulton. With his hands, his body and his facial expressions, he brought together all the moving parts into a united whole.

Yesterday morning, I listened to Pastor Amy's first sermon in a Lenten series. She's talking about things to "give up" during Lent. And she doesn't mean chocolate or television. While those things might be tough, the characteristics of human nature that she's addressing are more complex than giving up a Dove bar.

Yesterday's topic was Giving Up Control. That hits a little close to home for a firstborn perfectionist who just might like to be in control. She spoke from Genesis 2, where Adam and Eve disobey God, thinking that they knew better than Him. She also used Scripture from Matthew 4: 1-11. While Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, he denies his own impulses and follows God's will.

As I listened to the sermon, I thought back to the Saturday choir concert. Those 256 singers gave up control to the conductor. These kids are individually talented. They are undoubtedly the best vocalists in their schools. They are probably talented soloists who are also used to performing and excelling individually.

But from Thursday through Saturday, they gave up control to a director. The goal wasn't standing out as a soloist. The goal was to blend together into the best group possible.

They gave up their cell phones. They neglected Facebook and Twitter. Instead, they turned their attention to a single man who taught them concepts they'd never experienced before. And the results were simply amazing.

Maybe it's a stretch to compare a conductor to God. But wouldn't our lives be more jubilant and harmonious if we gave up control to the Master Conductor?



Another of the songs from KMEA on Saturday was The Word Was God by Rosephanye Powell. This particular version was performed by the Florida Music Educators Association honor choir.

***

Today I am linked to Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday at Michelle's blog, Graceful: Faith in the Everyday.

Tickling the Ivories

(I wanted to bring this dala horse in downtown Lindsborg home!
It's my kind of horse of course!)

I am running a marathon today. Unfortunately, I won't be burning many calories as I race from one piano bench to another down a hallway at Central Christian Schools in Hutchinson.

But the "race" couldn't be for a better cause. The Heart of the Plains league middle school music festival gives students a chance to make music.

We celebrate grand feats on the gridiron or the basketball court. But too often, we don't find the same fervor for the arts.

My mind is cluttered with key signatures and dynamic markings that drift through my consciousness as surely as "visions of sugarplums" danced through the heads of Clement Clark Moore's central characters.

Why have I done this for 16 years now? The answer is in the music. I hope I share my love for the music and give the students a tip or two that will make a solo more than black notes on a white page.

Yesterday, my friend and a former band instructor at Stafford Middle/High School shared a link on his Facebook status that demonstrates this very message. Both Tony and Kelly Ballard are among the teachers for whom I've accompanied through the years. It couldn't have been better timing to see this vivid demonstration of what musicality truly means.



I'm playing 30 different accompaniments today - mostly vocal and instrumental solos, a couple of ensembles and two choir numbers. We've been practicing since January. I hope I've done just a little bit to help the kids realize it's more than just singing or playing the right notes.

For me, it's way more than that. Some of these students have a lot of God-given ability. Some are not as blessed, but they work so hard and want it so badly.

So, even though the music has center stage today, it becomes a lot more to me. My time on the piano bench is more about being a cheerleader, an encourager, a person who cares for an uncertain adolescent (and isn't their parent or their teacher, but someone who chooses to be there.)

So, if you wouldn't mind, say a prayer for the kids today. Pray that they will overcome the nerves and just remember the music.

Music is what feelings sound like. ~Author Unknown

(And, while you're at it, say a prayer for Mr. Gill and me, too!)

Change the World

(Stained glass window at Youthville Chapel, Newton, KS)

Kansas has had its share of tourism slogans through the years. "Kansas: It's as big as you think" is the current motto. Its precursors included "The Secret's Out," "Linger Longer," "Land of Ahhs" and "Simply Wonderful."

If Gov. Sam Brownback gets his way and chops funding for the Kansas Arts Commission, it will be no secret that our state's simply wonderful arts groups will have to linger longer at the mercy of private donors. My "Ahhs" are quickly turning to "Oh no's!"

If Brownback's budget passes, Kansas would become the first state in the nation to no longer fund arts. I don't think that's what the Sunflower State wants to hang its hat on.

I wouldn't want to be the governor. I wouldn't want to be a state legislator, looking for ways to scrimp and save and bring down the budget deficit.

But I'm afraid that if public funding for the arts is on the chopping block, it won't be long until school districts follow suit and whittle school music programs from their class schedules.

And that would be a shame. A week ago, I spent the day at the Heart of the Plains Music Festival hosted by Stafford Schools. I got a chance to support my local high school musicians and also those from my alma mater, Skyline High. Most importantly, I got the chance to hear my talented niece, Madison, perform individually and with Skyline groups.

A basketball team doesn't have the market on teamwork. Just spend a day listening to choral music or band performances and you'll figure that out pretty quickly.

I have to admire a group of high school students from Lawrence, who took their convictions to the Kansas statehouse last week.

“Art is an essential part of life,” said Hazlett Henderson, a sophomore at Lawrence High School. “I don’t know if private funding will be there.”

A Senate committee last Thursday rejected Gov. Brownback’s attempt to abolish the Kansas Arts Commission. The Federal and State Affairs Committee voted against Brownback’s order before a packed hearing room that included about 20 high school students from Lawrence.

Keil Eggers, a senior at Free State High School, said he made the trip to the Capitol because he wanted the Arts Commission funded so that “kids behind me would have the same opportunities” in arts programs that he had.

Brownback’s order will take effect July 1 unless the Legislature rejects it. The committee’s recommendation to keep the Arts Commission will next go to the full Senate. After the hearing, the Lawrence students said they were pleased with the decision by the committee.

They aren't alone in recognizing a strong correlation between quality music education in schools and academic achievement.

Madi was selected for the Kansas Music Educators Association honor choir, which was directed last month by Dr. Craig Jessop of Utah State. This guy is no slacker: He is a former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

At the choir performance, he shared an interesting statistic with the musicians, their families and the audience.

The average ACT score of the choir kids who had taken the test was a 27. The 2010 average composite score for all Kansas students was 22, above the national average of 21.

The Kansas musicians' ACT score was 5 points higher. That's significant.

A 2007 Harris Interactive Poll of working adults indicated that music education impacted five skill areas: ability to work toward common goals, striving for excellence in group settings, disciplined approach to solving problems, creative problem solving and flexibility in work situations.

Harris Interactive Poll, 2007

I know that no one wants their great love on the chopping block. I freely admit that music is one of the cornerstones in my life. But I think cutting funding to the arts is a big mistake.

Gov. Brownback may want to reconsider. I know that Bono is no great philosopher, but I do think this particular "slogan" has some merit for the Land of Ahhs:

Music can change the world because it can change people.

Bono