Music Teachers Share Insights at First Texaco-Eastman Institute

Public school music teachers and community cultural leaders throughout the country have a new source of inspiration--and financial support--for their efforts to make music an important part of young lives.

Initiated last year, the Texaco-Eastman Music Leadership Institute is the latest step in a unique partnership between the Eastman School of Music and the Texaco Foundation, says Donna Brink Fox, Eastman's Eisenhart Professor of Music Education.

The first institute, held last July, brought about 25 teachers and community leaders to the Eastman campus for a three-day series of seminars on music education.

The group represented five communities from across the country--Atlanta; Midland, Texas; Baltimore; Glendale, Arizona; and White Plains, New York.

They were selected through a competitive grant program known as Texaco- Eastman Music Partnership Opportunities (TEMPO). Funded through the Texaco Foundation, the program is administered with the help of the Eastman School.

Each community project received a three-year grant of $100,000 for projects that focus on collaborations between public school music programs and community music resources, including nearby college music programs.

The Eastman School and the Texaco Foundation have worked together to expand early childhood music programs since the mid-1990s. Eastman's program for urban string education, "Time for Bows," supported by a grant from the foundation, offers stringed-instrument instruction to third-through fifth-grade students at Rochester's School 17.

The project's success served as a model for the TEMPO grant program.

Says Eastman Director James Undercofler: "We are keenly interested in helping these grant recipients succeed. Their music education initiatives depend on strong community partnerships, and Eastman has been leading the way in this area in recent years."

The Eastman School has received critical acclaim for revising its curriculum in the past several years to emphasize efforts aimed at expanding the audience for serious music.

Community partnerships, such as the Texaco-Eastman Leadership Institute, are an integral part of that program, known as "Eastman Initiatives."

The second Texaco-Eastman Music Leadership Institute, with five new TEMPO projects, will take place this fall.

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