Outsiders Revive School Music Programs : Helping hands: A not-for-profit cultural agency has been instrumental in teaching music to public school students.

Toby Caplan works as a teacher at two public elementary schools in the West Valley, teaching fourth- and fifth-graders to play musical instruments.

But she is not an employee of the school district.

The two schools--Melvin Avenue School in Reseda and Serrania Avenue School in Woodland Hills--will have concerts next month to show off what the students have learned in Caplan’s classes.

But officially, neither school has music studies in its curriculum.

The programs at these two schools are provided by an outsider, the Valley Cultural Center, a not-for-profit organization best known for staging free classical, jazz and pop music concerts in Warner Park. Two years ago members of the organization decided that giving music concerts was not enough. At a time when music programs in public schools had become rare, they decided that in some small way they had to try to ensure that serious music would have a future audience.

“We felt that we were starting to lose our audience for the classical concerts,” said Susan Kapitanoff, who is on the center’s board and has chaired its Music in the Schools program since it began in 1988. Though more than 6,000 people can crowd the park to see jazz concerts, the two or three classical concerts it sponsors go begging for an audience.

Teen-agers and young adults, in particular, seemed to be missing from the classical crowd.

“Our kids were not getting an introduction to music,” Kapitanoff said. “Therefore, they didn’t really understand it. They didn’t enjoy it. We felt we had to do something.”

Music programs started to disappear from local schools in the wake of the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, which reduced money going to schools. When schools began to cut programs, the arts were among the first to go. “At this point I have 67 elementary schools in my district and only two traveling instrumental teachers,” said Fran Benedict, music adviser of the Los Angeles Unified School District region that covers the West Valley.

“These two teachers can visit only a total of 10 of the schools on a regular basis, so the rest of the schools have to go without. About every three years we switch the schools to give others in the region a chance, but if a student doesn’t happen to be enrolled in a school at a time when the instructors are there, they miss out.”

In 1988 the center got approval from the school region for the program, and Caplan, a West Hills music teacher and concert musician who had been a flutist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was hired as the instructor.

Center officials met with school officials to determine which elementary schools fed into junior highs with music programs.

“We didn’t want the music instruction to just end when they left elementary school,” Kapitanoff said.

Starting at the top of the alphabetical list of eligible schools, center officials approached Calahan Avenue School in Northridge, which agreed to be the first in the program. It was supposed to be the only one in the program that first year, but the principal of Serrania expressed a strong interest.

“I just called them and begged,” said Marian Fortunati, principal of Serrania, and the center agreed to provide classes at her school.

Serrania stayed on for the second year, but Calahan’s turn came around to get instrumental music teachers from the school district. Administrators at Melvin heard about the opening and moved quickly to get the program.

The program is limited in scope. The center, which is supported by membership dues and donations from local businesses, allocates about $6,000 a year for the program, most of which goes toward paying Caplan. The teacher visits each school one day a week and spends about two hours per visit, working with various instrumental groups.

Because of the time constraints, Caplan limited the program to fourth- and fifth-graders, but the response was still overwhelming. About 100 students at each school signed up, and the group was winnowed down to 45 at each school through auditions to determine musical aptitude.

The students rented instruments from the school district’s vast, mostly unused collection for the almost token charge of $10 a year. A small number of students could not afford the fee, so the PTA at each school picked up the tab.

For Caplan, it’s frustrating having the students for such a short amount of time each week. “They are really just learning the basics,” she said. “How to read music, how to count, how to play in tune and with good position.

“Only the heartiest survive. I make it clear to them I’m really serious about this, that we are not there just to goof off. I’m a professional musician, and I have high standards. Maybe that’s why we are down to about 20 students in each school.”

Those attending the concerts at the two schools next month can expect to hear some misplaced notes and unintentional dissident harmonies during these concerts by the fourth- and fifth-graders, but to school administrators frustrated with their inability to offer more arts study, it will be a sweet sound.

“Maybe parents and the school district will take notice of this program and see how important it is,” Kapitanoff said. “Maybe they will someday give music programs the priority we think they should have. Then we can move on to something else.”