Bravo! Music for everyone

Click here for tickets to 2009 Bravo! Music Festival: http://www.vailmusicfestival.org/

Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival joined forces with The Youth Foundation and the Guitar Center to provide instruments, music supplies and help with coordinating after-school and in-school music programs. Several area schools will benefit from the combined efforts.

The Guitar Center in Denver, a partner of the Festival since 2001, donated 13 keyboards and stands, a variety of percussion instruments, a metronome and guitar racks.

“We are pleased to provide schools with resources to help grow their music programs,” says Liz Campbell, Bravo’s director of education. “Research has shown that playing an instrument at an early age increases the ability of the left and right hemispheres of the brain to work together.”

Gypsum Elementary’s String Program will benefit from a recent donation of music supplies and new string instruments for the Program, which now has 36 students. Gypsum Elementary and Gypsum Middle School received new recorders and percussion instruments for the Middle School band. About 30 percent of the Gypsum Middle School is enrolled in music, and Bravo hopes this number will increase with the availability of these new instruments.

Meadow Mountain began their after-school piano program in January under the direction of the school’s music teacher Holly Trantor.  Trantor teaches the 30 students, grades 3-5, the fundamentals of the piano. Bravo donated the stands and instruction books.

Red Sandstone Elementary School will continue its beginner keyboard class, initiated last year under the direction of music teacher Nancy Sandberg. The class is offered during student lunch hours twice a week for a month and is taught by local pianist Tony Gulizia. New this year is a program for advanced piano students.

Battle Mountain High School will benefit from new guitar racks, donated by Bravo, for 25 guitars.

Celebrating 22 years in the Vail Valley in 2009, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival is a hallmark cultural attraction in Colorado. Bringing in three venerable ensembles, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the Bravo! Festival has established Vail as one of today’s leading musical landmarks.

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