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Scott Macaluso

P.S. We Care

Staten Island, NY is one of the boroughs of the Big Apple – known for it’s history in film, literature, music, and art!  However, one of the longest plaguing concerns for New York City public schools is the same ailment of schools all over the country.  That would be standardized testing – and unfortunately for students in Richmond County, a significant portion of the re-designed testing material has not reached the classroom curriculum! As students all over the country deal with the anxiety of standardized testing, they turn to other outlets for self expression.  Some turn to their friends, others turn to recreational activities (scholastic or domestic), and for this unique group of students at P.S. 29, they turn to music.  When Keeping The Blues Alive found out about the music program and their “Pay It Forward” project, we knew we could allocate some funding to help them reach their goal. Mr. Stephens, the school’s music teacher explains, “This project is important because it is something that will give to our school community for the next 20 years. Children will always remember their elementary school years of being in the band and playing concerts. These instruments are vital in having children write the scripts to their lives. Experiences help inspire. Knowing that someone cared outside of our school community will inspire these children. Our motto is “Pay it Forward”. This is an opportunity for them to see it from a different perspective. Someone will have paid it forward to them.” On April 23rd, your donations helped fund P.S. 29 in Staten Island, NY to purchase 3 new flutes for the beginning band program.  The flutes will be school instruments used in various scholastic functions including concerts, lessons, graduation ceremonies and other approved functions. “I would like to thank all of you on behalf of the students and the school community. The generosity that has been displayed here is heart warming. Our students will be excited to experience these new instruments. Thanks to all of you these instruments will give our band years of enjoyment. Our band will be able to expand. Our school will be able to offer more students the opportunity to play in the band. Some students will follow band into middle school, high school and even college. It starts now in elementary school. Students need options and opportunity. With this donation students have more options which will create more opportunity. Your generosity instantly impacts our community. The children will be using these instruments as soon as they arrive. You have given a gift that will keep giving for years to come.” – Mr. Stephens If you missed out on the opportunity to give a small donation to the foundation, please follow this link and help us change the lives of more students all over the country!

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April 24, 2013

Musicians Institute Scholarship Winner!

We’re proud to announce that the winner of the 2013 Keeping The Blues Alive Musicians Institute (MI) Scholarship is W. Siddharth Srinivasan! Talented Blues-rock/Funk guitarist and native of Chennai, India, W. Siddharth Srinivasan was chosen by the faculty based on demonstrated need and recognized talent to receive the $3,000 award. Through scholarships like these, Keeping The Blues Alive helps young musicians foster their passions. Click here to watch Joe Bonamassa talk about the importance of inspiring the next generation of Blues artists. Siddharth made the decision to attend the MI Guitar program because “it is the best music school for contemporary music in the world. I strongly believe the people and opportunities here are something I require at this point in my life. I hope to become a better musician and performer and to learn the skills required to be successful in the music industry.” Siddharth sees his MI education as an important key to achieving his future dreams of being able to “work extensively with many musicians and focus on the live performance circuit, composing and songwriting, as well as working in the digital domain”. In addition to the weekly donations we make to schools around the country, we work with post-secondary institutions to make a direct impact in the lives of students who have shown both promise and need through scholarships like this one. We wish Sid the best in becoming the next Blues Rock star and thank him for Keeping The Blues Alive. To help us fund more scholarships and keep the future of Blues bright, click here to donate today!  

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April 19, 2013

Thank You for Supporting Music Education!

I’d like to start by thanking all of you who contributed to and helped spread the word about the Keeping The Blues Alive (KTBA) pledge drive. Our goal was to raise $10,000 and we exceeded that. These funds were desperately needed and we’re already putting that money to work. Last Friday we donated a keyboard to Dubois Area High School in Pennsylvania (read the full story here) and next week, we’ll be announcing the winner of the Keeping The Blues Alive $3,000 Musician’s Institute Scholarship. KTBA prides itself on how efficiently we’re able to get your donations out to the schools and students who need them most, meaning your dollar goes further. Whether you donate $1 or $1,000, KTBA leverages your combined donations and channels them into the areas where we can make the greatest impact.  KTBA has been operating for seven months and has already funded music education programs, resources and scholarships in 10 institutions, reaching over 1100 students. In addition to the weekly donations we make to schools around the country and the scholarships we fund, we also produce Riffnotes “Edu-tainment” videos. These are hosted on SchoolTube.com and incorporated into the classroom. The first, featured Joe Bonamassa discussing the history of the Blues (watch it here) and with your support, we’re planning to release a series, where professional musicians demonstrate their instruments and explain theory to inspire and motivate young musicians. We’ve accomplished a great deal already and have even more in the works, but we need your help to continue our mission to give students access to music education in and out of schools. To help us fight government cuts to music education and be part of the solution, make a donation today by clicking here. With sincere thanks on behalf of Joe, J&R and myself for helping us Keep The Blues Alive

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April 11, 2013

Got The Need For Keys

Learning to play a keyboard instrument is an excellent way to add life-long music to a student’s repertoire. Keyboards can be inexpensive, portable, and have many variations,  from a grand piano to a console organ. Studies show that children who learned basic piano skills as early as preschool performed 34% higher on aptitude tests that measure spacial relationships (hence learning whole step/half step recognition) and the ability to recognize patterns.  Those skills translate very well into real life circumstances. With the help of the donations we received from our One Dollar Pledge Drive, we raised enough money to fund a keyboard for DuBois Area High School in Dubois, Pennsylvania. The music program director, Mr. Sensor elaborates: “My students have a true love for learning. They are voracious in their desire to learn music, and I hope to continue to acquire keyboards to build up a keyboard/music lab with a number of stations. Learning keyboards would be a great step in the ladder of experiences we hope to offer… [This] keyboard will enhance students’ abilities to learn music, and performance skills on keyboard.  Students will learn the fundamentals of music performance, coordination, rhythm and note reading skills and ensemble performance. Using a portion of the donations we’ve received to help fund this project, we worked with Mr. Sensor, who began working on his curriculum for the semester!  “Thanks so much for your generous donations towards our project. We are always amazed when people, often complete strangers’ give their hard earned funds to help us acquire things to improve our instruction. Students need people like yourselves to give them a hand up, with people like yourselves helping them, they have a real chance at success!  Please know that what you do is appreciated, and that you ARE making a difference every day. I will try to remind my students of that as often as possible.” Mr. Sensor has now funded 24 projects through the help of people like you, who make the decision to click that donate button and contribute to our cause.  We are completely indebted to your patronage and will continue funding music projects like this one, all over the country! If you want to be a part of the next project, click here to donate today and help keep music in schools!

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April 5, 2013

Let Them Read Music!

Anyone who has ever had the privilege of taking a music course in school would be familiar with standardized music instructional textbooks such as Standard of Excellence or  Essential Elements.  They are easily one of the most popular and time-tested curricula for music educators all over the country.  In addition to describing posture, basic fingerings, and good habits, the books allow the student to progress in a graduated manner so they master the pre-requisite skills before moving on to lessons of greater difficulty. Mr. Povie, an elementary music teacher at Hesse Elementary School in Savannah, GA had been using borrowed materials and pulling together resources in spite of budget cuts, to provide a quality education for his students. “My students love music and are very dedicated. We have a good selection of Concert Band music we borrowed from other schools, and a few we have bought with our budget. Our library of good jazz music is very small, and cannot be added to because of budget cuts,” Mr. Povie reported.  My students come from a wide area to our neighborhood school.  Many come from poverty and single parent households, but all of them love to play good music together, and they work hard to improve their abilities.  Many had never played an instrument before joining the band, and they have found that they have a natural talent and innate ability to learn to play.” Thanks to the donations of Keeping The Blues Alive Supporters, we were able to participate in a fundraiser to purchase Mr. Povie’s classroom set of music curriculum called “Essential Elements Jazz Ensemble” covering pedagogy and technique for trumpet, trombone, flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass guitar, and the accompanying conductor manual.  The series also includes supplementary DVD’s and CD’s with listening examples and other useful classroom materials. “These song collections will give my students exposure to a wide variety of music styles at a fraction of what it would cost us to buy songs individually. We will be able to put on concerts showing our growing abilities in all different styles of music, and this will prepare them to continue into high school and beyond as strong musicians. Many of my former students continue into college and then into professional performance and teaching careers, and they need to play all types of music to be successful at this,” Mr. Povie adds. Your donations make a real impact in schools across the country. Thanks for helping us Keep the Blues Alive. Donate today at https://keepingthebluesalive.org/donate/

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March 6, 2013

Take a Stand

Thanks to your donations, Keeping The Blues Alive was able to rescue another music program in need! Meeker Middle School, located just outside of Renton, Washington needed music stands for their band program. Band Director and recent First Investors Outstanding Educator Award Winner, Mrs. Brewster, explains: “We’ve got a great problem at our school: completely full band classes, but not enough music stands for all 90 7th and 8th graders to play together at the same time in a mass band!  In our December concert, the 7th graders had to pass their music stands to the 8th graders after their performance.” To read about Mrs. Brewster and her Outstanding Educator Award click here! “My students are hard working musicians in the 7th and 8th grades that contribute greatly to our ensemble sound. Their development would be greatly aided by having no more than 2 students per music stand during performances. Because of their high caliber playing, they deserve to be seated with the best possible posture and comfort needed to play.” Your donation allowed Mrs. Brewster to purchase 12 new music stands for the band program!  Now, in rehearsal and performance, each child can perform without needing to share a stand with more than one other partner in their section.  The flow of the concerts will be much smoother in the sense that between performing ensembles the students are not re-staging the entire stage to accommodate the changing instrumentation.  Additionally, if they want to combine the bands for a unified concert experience, they won’t have to move the stands at all! Meeker Middle School is an example of one of our principles at Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation.  $50,000 grants are special and absolutely life-changing.  However, so is a small donation to help students and teachers who are already making a difference.  Sometimes they just need a little bit of oil so to speak, to keep the engine running smoothly.  Because of assertive music teachers and donors like YOU, Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation was able to step in and give them a little boost. Thank you so much for your support, and if you’d like to contribute to our Foundation, please click here to donate.  Every dollar counts!

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February 21, 2013

Vegas Gets Some Love, Too

Our latest success story takes us to Canyon Springs High School in Las Vegas, NV!  Amongst all the bad news you hear about Las Vegas and its reputation for its iconic frivolity, Vegas will be known for a better reason.  It will be known for its rapidly growing band programs as a result of donated money and resources from the public community – not to mention, Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation advocates, sponsors, and people like YOU who donate to our cause! Canyon Springs High School is a Title I, high risk and SIG/Turnaround Identified school.  For those who do not know what that means,  it is a school that received a School Improvement Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.  When a school is labeled as “low-performing” the school can be granted “turnaround money” to invest in the kids, the school, and the overall facilities. To read an article about the the SIG Program as of November 2012 click here. At Canyon Springs HS the majority of the students here could not afford to own or rent instruments, leaving the school with the extra burden to keep up with demand. Students spend many hours after school and on weekends to participate in the band program, often through rehearsal, performance, and even community service hours.  The school went from a band program of 30 students to almost 100 in only 2 years.  We all recognize the positive influence that music can have on people, so when Canyon Springs asked for help, we knew we needed to step in. The supplies requested were mouthpieces for french horns, mellophones and trombones (all brass instruments), which would replace mouthpieces that are too damaged to play, unsafe to play, or flat-out missing from inventory.  By allowing more instruments to be readily available, they would be able to continue to grow the band program over time.  Students would be able to take pride in their hard work, as well as be able to take their instruments home to practice in between the days when they have music courses. Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, Becca Stark, Kelli Currie, Lisa C., Dream Fund and The DonorsChoose.org Board of Directors teamed up to fund this school’s project and as a result, the school has already held their first-ever Jazz Ensemble rehearsal!  This is the first Jazz group in the history of the school! Problem: Students needed mouthpieces to replace old, damaged or missing brass mouthpieces. Action: Donors gave money to Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation Result: Project funded – 85 kids and a special teacher are smiling today!  Now, don’t you just feel the love in the air? Peace, Love and Music – That’s something we can invest in.

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February 14, 2013

KTBA is Kickin’ It Rhythm Style in Miami, FL

Most people who read this blog are wondering, “What will these people do with my donation?”  Let us take you to Miami, FL (about 35 miles south of our office) and we’ll take you to Blues Lakes Elementary School – almost 100 faculty and staff dedicated to not only providing a productive learning atmosphere and education, but also boasts an autism academy attributed to being the first “specialized choice school in Miami-Dade County.”  By the next academic school year, Blue  Lakes Elementary is anticipated to not only serve Pre-K and Kindergarten students, but also include 1st through 4th grade students.  When Mrs. Larsen, Blue Lakes’ Music teacher expressed a need to outfit the classroom with rhythm tools and instruments, Keeping The Blues Alive decided to join the campaign. Keeping The Blues Alive spoke to Mrs. Larsen on the phone before the donation was sent.   She expressed to us the concern that a music curriculum did not exist for this particular instrumental outlet at the school.  When she initiated the task of creating one, she knew she needed help to get the project started, and at the time the school was not in the financial state to assist her.  “Many of my students are autistic and love to communicate through rhythms they play on their bodies or their desk.  With instruments, they get a chance to hear different sounds and pitches each instrument has, along with feeling the different textures.  By bringing new instruments in to the classroom [the child gets an opportunity] to explore music in ways they can only imagine.  As always, we greatly appreciate anything you can do to help bring the world of music to any child in the school systems.” Upon making the donation, our friends at DonorsChoose.org verified the cost of the items in question, and released funding to Mrs. Larsen and her classroom a few days ago. Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, My students and I would like to express our gratitude for donating to our school for new music instruments. With these instruments many of my students cannot only express themselves through rhythm once again but they are able to show everyone around them just how creative they can be. Each instrument presents a unique opportunity to create something new for them. We are looking forward to the arrival of these instruments and once again with to express our gratitude to donors like you who support the arts in our schools.   With gratitude, Mrs. L We tried to reach out to her this morning, but she surely had her hands full, so we should expect an update in the near future!  And to Mrs. Larsen, we wish you all the best, and hope that you and your students continue to have fun learning and growing together in your new venture! If you would like to help us donate to another school such as this one, please take a moment to visit our Donation Page and help us revitalize and inspire music programs, their educators, and most importantly the students all over the country!

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January 23, 2013

Mending Muncie, Indiana: Dozens of Instruments Repaired by KTBA Funding

This week’s success story comes from Indianapolis, Indiana where 134 middle school band students are now waiting anxiously for the return of their newly repaired music instruments. Keeping The Blues Alive: Mr. Bieda, what makes this particular group of students stand out amongst their peers? Mr. Bieda: “My students often have to worry about things outside of their education such as food, money, transportation, and the challenges of their home lives – things that any middle school students shouldn’t have to worry about. [In spite of their circumstances] they face great challenges, yet they come to school and achieve great things [at  H L Harshman Middle School]. KTBA: What is the current state of the students’ environment? MB: “My students all come from low income families with 100% of students are on free and reduced lunch and are all bused to our school. Despite our extreme poverty we have some of the highest test scores in the city in both math and language arts. The band is there to help provide support to the students and give them a well rounded education. The success is because these students have a strong desire to further themselves and do great things with their lives.” KTBA: How will funds from Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation help these kids in a direct way? MB: “These donations will drastically change the course of the band. Currently we only have about 90 instruments for the 134 students in band to use, so the students already have to share instruments daily. Instruments are not made to be used several times a day and our instruments are breaking quickly! Muncie Music Center is going to repair our students instruments so that they work again!” On January 3rd, Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation took the opportunity to make a contribution to Mr. Bieda and his classrooms.  The money donated will help pay for dozens of music instruments to be repaired by Muncie Music Center in Muncie, Indiana. To donate to the next school, please visit our donation page to sow a seed in a child’s music education today!

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January 8, 2013

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Mission Statement

Our mission is to conserve the art of music in schools by funding projects, scholarships, and grants that preserve music education for the next generation. Every week, we donate to a school in need of instruments, sheet music, supplies and more in the effort to uphold the rich culture and history of the Blues as a true American art form.

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