Blues News

Donation of the Week

KTBA Funds Piano Lab in Cleveland

cleveland, oh – Thanks to your donations, Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation donated to Citizens Academy!  But this wasn’t an ordinary donation… We scored them a piano lab! That’s right – 8 keyboards for their music room!

Students enrolled at Citizens Academy come from many different cultures and backgrounds.  Most schools are like that –  Citizens Academy is an urban, inner city charter school in Cleveland, Ohio and the communities are extremely varied.  Parents struggle to find the perfect learning environment for their children – but often, it’s not just the schools that need work, sometimes it’s the teacher.

However, with Citizens Academy, not only are music students in a productive learning environment, they also are blessed to have Mrs. Grossi for a teacher!

“Our school’s vision is that all students will graduate from college and become productive and civically engaged members of society. Even though our students face many life obstacles, they do not let anything interfere with their education. Our school has earned the highest state ranking by the Ohio Department of Education as “Excellent with Distinction.” We were also selected by the United States Department of Education as a 2011 Blue Ribbon School. We are very proud of our accomplishments and work hard each day to set and accomplish even higher goals!” Mrs. Grossi explains.

“By having a keyboard lab in the music classroom, each student will learn how to read music and will be able to apply that knowledge to playing the keyboard. The piano can be a basis for all instruments. Therefore gaining the skill of learning how to play it, will also lead to students being able to transfer this knowledge into learning to play other instruments in the future.”

Having a hands-on playing experience is so important for the development of a student’s music education. Through this donation, these well-deserving students will have the opportunity and experience to shine in the arts!

As Mrs. Grossi breaks down the fundamentals of music theory and piano technique, these students will grow not only in their path to music education, but also in their social skills amongst their peers.

Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation,

I can not fully express the excitement, joy and gratitude I have towards your donations to our project. Thank you so much for sharing my vision of the importance of learning to play an instrument.The keyboards you have funded will give each student an opportunity to not only become an excellent musician, but develop a life-long love and appreciation for music.

Thank you so much for your generous donation. I can not wait to share the news with my students and begin teaching the keyboard classes!

With gratitude,
Mrs. Grossi

To make a donation to next week’s project click here

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